Torrefaction

About 3 months ago I started walking down the stairs at work.  That is, I started walking my fat ass down 7 flights of stairs at the end of the day, instead of riding the elevators.  And most days I'd get off a floor early and walk up one flight.   It's not much but it's something, right?  Well, after about a month of that my knees were stronger, so I quit walking the stairs (because it's effing boring) and started riding my bike.  I also tried a bit of walking as part of my commute--chronicled here and quickly rejected as a means of transit and as a form of exercise.  But I stuck with the biking.

So for about a month I've been riding my bike 4 miles most days.  I've gotten in the habit of coming home, changing into my workout togs (such as they are), and exercising for 30 or 40 minutes.  But the biking is the wrong combination of easy & hard.  Easy enough that I don't break much of a sweat or get my heart rate up - or lose any weight - but hard enough that I'm tired after the third mile.  So extending the ride isn't a good way to push myself.

But I've always had a secret inner jock.  Where other big girls wistfully eye little dresses and skinny jeans, I sigh over the cute space-fiber tops and yoga pants in the nike store.  When I was young and skinny myself, it was because I would go to the gym and lift weights every day.  Well, that and I was 20 years old--youth makes everything physical easier (and everything psychological harder!).  But even though I biked, lifted weights, worked out on the rowing machine, and so on, the one thing I could never do was run.

Except it turns out, I can.  Running doesn't come naturally to me, but by thinking my way into it, and researching it and testing things out, I'm learning to do it, like any other hobby.  If I run in a way that feels natural, I get winded in about a half a block, and I stay winded for 20 minutes.  If I run in a low-down, slow, old-lady shuffle I don't get winded, but my feet and knees hurt.  If I run in a kind of bouncy jog, but take it down to half speed, it starts to come together.  I can breathe, my legs feel good, my feet come down flat without twisting, and I can run.

For a little bit, anyway.  I'm up to half a mile of actual running, which I intermix with half a mile of walking, gasping a bit, and being amazed at how years of biking have utterly failed to develop the muscles right behind my ankle bones.  Like, I'm pretty sure that muscle has never been called upon in my adult life.  Anyway today was my third day, and I ran more than I walked.  There were one or two moments where I actually was enjoying the run.  Very brief moments, but still.  I can't wait for tomorrow's run, and it's been years and years since a workout made me feel that way.

I'm so excited about this, I can hardly stand it!