I was not always fond of jogging…
When I was in high school I played basketball. Yes, there was lots and lots of sprints, suicides and laps around the gym…but those were done in short bursts and my mind was focused on getting that damn ball! In college I decided to join a gym. I loved lifting weights, but wasn’t too sure about the treadmill. (For the record, I’m a country gal…growing up, the gym was my backyard.) I got the nerve up to try one out and after about 10 min I was off it. I really hated that gasping for air feeling.
It wasn’t until 6-7 years later that I realized that I had no clue about jogging. My version of it was a full-on dead run…like I did when I played basketball. So, not much of a surprise when I couldn’t last more that a minute or two before I was turning colors, gasping for any microscopic amount of air I could suck in and wondering why on earth anyone would want to run for more than 30 seconds. However, I was determined to figure this out.
Of course, it would be only fitting that I would decide December in Germany was the perfect time to learn how to jog outside. Please, don’t ask me why the dead of winter…I still don’t have the answer. Off I went, with my 3 layers of pants, 4 layers of shirts, 2 layers of socks, mittens, ear muffs and a full face mask (No, not exaggerating; and yes, I looked ridiculous). I forced myself to start very, very, very slow. I think snails were passing me. Oh and did I mention it was hilly? Right…up and down it went…and I felt like I was being tortured. The thoughts going through my head are not repeatable in this blog…but they all had something to do with “What the hell am I thinking!?” But I was just too stubborn (or my ego was too big) to quit.
Over the next couple years I kept up jogging 2-3 miles, but I always dreaded the first mile of the run…it felt like pure torture. Was I just being a drama queen (most likely). I started to do a head to toe analysis of myself during that time to see if there was really a problem. Head working – check; relaxed shoulders and arms – nope too tense, please relax – check; regulate breathing to avoid gasping-for-last-breath-feeling – check; legs working – check; feet working – check; anything hurting (physically, not mentally) – no. Okay, so all parts were working fine, nothing actually hurt and I really wasn’t dying.
I decided I needed to look at this from a different perspective. I needed to be thankful. Thankful that I had two legs that allowed me to run; knees and feet that were strong enough to take the impact of jogging; lungs that work well to oxygenate my body; a heart strong enough to keep up with demand; eyes to be able to enjoy the beauty of my jog and ears that allowed me to enjoy the sounds of nature (oh and avoid oncoming traffic).
When I started thanking my body for what it was doing, that first mile didn’t feel so torturous anymore. My body relaxed and got into rhythm quicker; my mind was able to drift to random thoughts (that didn’t involve inappropriate four letter words); and I found myself running further than I had before.
I learned a valuable lesson during that time that I have frequently passed on to people new to jogging. When we are kind to our body, our body will be kind to us.
Have you thanked your body today?
OMG – this is AWESOME! In my 11th week of a 12 week running program I am SO glad to hear you say it took time to figure it out.
True story – I told my doctor I was joining a running program that teaches first timers to run and she said, “What’s to learn?”. More stories of people learning to be healthy are exactly what we need!