...I don’t. Well not usually. Cause I don’t run.
Generally, it’s because I’m afraid I won’t be fast enough, won’t keep up. Or I’ll be out of breath or red in the face, something like that. Even when I play sports that involve running, I try not to run too much. Played a non-running “sport” for all of high school, and always come up with an excuse not to go to the gym when suitemates ask or the opportunity presents itself. You could definitely say I’m lazy about it, or even just scared of trying something new, something that could possibly not work out or even be painful (gasp). My family isn’t typically the kind that runs much (with the key exception of my amazing brother, who ran the LA marathon this year)--they'll bike or hike or something like that. Always kinda wished I could run, though, be more in shape (who doesn’t, I guess), but shied away from any attempts to actually do something about it. Being an outdoorsy type, one who is decent at sports, I never tell anyone about it—come up with another excuse and make another comment most of the time, avoid signing up for IMs that require too much of that running stuff, things like that.
BUT they say it takes 21 days to form a habit and I’m on day 18—not running every day, but exercising all of em, and running at least every other day, with lots of other cardio in-between. It’s not perfect; I usually wait for everyone else to clear out of the workout room (comparing your newfound ability to run to a smokejumper who has it in their job description to do so for an hour a day is not the most pleasant of experiences), or make sure the trails outside aren’t too full of people. It’s definitely brought out plenty of sweat (and if you ask my parents, they’ll tell you I’ve never particularly enjoyed that aspect of a hot summer day) and a few days when I just didn’t want to, or was nice and sore the next morning.
I’ve come into kind of a routine with it, though—bout a half hour after I eat dinner, go for a run on the trails outside the jumper center or (more likely given how often it’s been raining) on the treadmill. Shower after that, read or watch seasons of tv shows I like that I’ve missed out on during school before I head to bed. I’m not normally one for routine, but it seems to be working (so far, that is).
Thought I’d hit a *major* bump in the road on the day when my mp3 player died, not even turning on given the lack of battery power. However, as often happens, when one thing goes wrong it leads to new discoveries, and that day I realized that I can read while I run (if I have a large enough print book and the lights are on, that is). Helps to focus on something else, and I can get a good deal of reading done in the workout room—conveniently enough two doors from my dorm room here.
Still don’t run well, don’t run fast, don’t even run that much, but I get the sense that that’s not the entire point. I remain proud when I can run a solid three miles without stopping—that’s a good day. Not quite a marathon, but hey, it’s better than I’ve ever done before. And I'm still working on it.
The question, of course, is whether or not this will stick—not just for the rest of the summer but into that crazy crazy school year thing, when I no longer have leisurely nights to spend as I please and time to run and shower and relax every day. Leaves me wondering if I can manage some kind of routine when I get back to the hectic world of school, with something to do every minute and a boatload of those excuses keeping me from the gym still well within reach and solidified in the muscle memory of my vocabulary. Hopefully the muscle memory of my, well, muscles, will win out instead. We’ll see, I guess.
