Had a run this morning. Could be a great one. Here's how I'll know: if I run more, it was.
I'm a lapsed athlete, still strong, but awfully horribly out of shape. Horrociously out of shape. I've been told by my doctor to get healthier, to lose weight, but I haven't. That's not what this is about. It's been years, anyway, so that's proven a poor motivator. Really, running isn't even about getting healthy from running. Running is about strengthening my resolve. Running is about building habits. Running is about an example for the rest of my life, a show of will, something I can translate into other habits. And it's a way to move my body.
This morning I tipped the scale at 219. At my height (5'10") that's 12 lbs over the cutoff between overweight and obese. So I've found myself at a point where my goal is to be overweight. My goal. Nice.
Today I ran 30 minutes (including a 3 min warm-up walk and a 5 min cool-down walk, but not including stretching time). I went about 2.6 miles by Google Maps. I took the pedestrian bridge from Calumet over the Metra tracks at 18th St, hugged Soldier Field around its Southeast bend, and then passed through the Gold Star Families Park & Memorial to the Lakefront Trail. Then I headed North along the Trail, under E. Solidarity Dr. (which leads to the Adler Planetarium), to the Shedd. I stopped there and turned around.
Today my goal was to get out. I told myself Soldier Field would be fine, as long as I got out there and moved. Tomorrow, my goal is to cover the same 2.6 miles. Eventually - and I don't think it'll take that long - my goal will be to increase my distance.
Now, I know I could run farther. I used to go to the river and back, and that's some 6 miles or so. I wasn't in tip-top shape then, either. But that was a once-a-week run, and that isn't what I'm after now. Now I'm after consistency. I want to train my body to listen to me, and I want to train my mind to control my muscles. I think I can get fit fast (though at 33, I'm not sure anymore), but the trick is consistency. Training. Six days a week. I suppose I could run a marathon at some point, but I'm not the sort of person who needs a purpose like that to train. Actually, that would probably be counter-productive to have something like that in mind. I have too much bravado ingrained in me, too much of something that would make me want to wing it, that would want the challenge of running untrained, of testing blind. And that would be bad for me. I already did a half marathon like that, about in the same shape I'm in now, and it was not good for the knees. Not one bit.
Speaking of which, as soon as I started to run today, my right knee hurt. Luckily it was only for a minute. I considered stopping, I guess, if I'm being truthful (and why not be?). But I didn't stop. And after I got a little grease on that hinge it worked just fine.
There was a heat advisory. Muggy hot heat, unseasonable heat, upper 90's. Though it's June, so how unseasonal is it? I know it's not technically summer, but June can be hot, and summer shouldn't even be in the upper 90's. There's really no appropriate season for that outside of the tropics. So the air was thick and warm and sticky, and I couldn't tell as I ran whether I was sweating or just collecting moisture from the air. But it was bright (for 6:30am), sunny and clear. The lake was ... I don't know, actually. I don't remember looking much at the lake. I remember running in odd patterns to avoid deep rocks on the crushed limestone path through the park, because I didn't want rocks in my shoes. I remember the other runners and bikers were mostly women or older men. But I don't remember looking at the lake. I think I usually shift my focus to the lake as I round the curve of the Shedd Aquarium and take in the city skyline. But I never rounded the Shedd today, so I never really focused on the water. The grass was green, though, and baking in the heat already. I don't think it ever cooled down from the night before.
My equipment is Karhu shoes, Craft apparel. Karhu/Craft sent me the shoes, shorts, shirts and socks for free. I have a Polar heart rate monitor that I got for my 30th birthday from close friends. It's great, but needs a new battery. I'll try to get that done tomorrow on Wabash. I'm trying to run with pace, so I'm not dragging my feet and not just walking oddly. But my heart can't yet keep up, so I end up stopping now and then to cool it. For the whole 30 minutes, I averaged 152 beats per minute, with a high of 176, and burned (supposedly) 411 calories. I definitely ate more than that for lunch, more than that for dinner, and more than that as a snack with my coffee. But that's ok. For now it's just about running. For now it's about learning one good habit, learning to cultivate it, learning how to train myself. Then I'll train myself in other areas. Then I'll train my diet, I'll train my office (a wreck), I'll train my writing. I'll train everything eventually. In time. For now, it's just about running.
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