Can I Learn to Run in a Month?
This year, Beth Skorecki, Senior Health Editor at Lifehacker Magazine, unveiled her latest Lifehacker Fitness Challenge for all staff. Each of us can choose a month, she said, and achieve a personal fitness goal, guiding our readers on a path to physical and mental improvement. In a brainstorming meeting we had on this topic, I said that I might regret it: “I would always like to work.”
I have had a rocky relationship with running since I was in middle and high school, when gym teachers made us all run a mile every year, as if our ability to do so meant that they somehow succeeded in their job. I always finished one of the last and I was always miserable and bright red-faced (thank you fair skin) when I finally crossed the finish line.
When I was an older teenager, I tried to run regularly and I didn’t like it. As a college student, I ran on the track at our student recreation center and still hated it.
The fact is that I love to play sports. Place me at the foot of the mountain and I will walk along it. Give me a tennis racket and a ball, and I will. I “run” on an elliptical trainer or ride my bike several times a week. But being able to just pull on my sneakers and hit the pavement feels so liberating, if only I could get past any mental barrier that seemed to be in front of me.
I’ve heard of people who used to hate running, but now they love running, and I want to be one of those people. So I chose May – not too cold, not too rainy, not too hot – to give myself the best chance of success, and here we are.
Last week Beth asked me what my “plan” for the month was (I didn’t have one) and what obstacles I foresee, if any. I told her that it is very important for me to overcome my fear of people who see me running, as I am almost sure that I look strange when I run, to which she replied: “You probably know. Everyone looks weird when they run, running is weird, we are made for it anyway. “
She then sent me this “Beginner Runner” workout schedule that had a good mix of 1.5-mile runs, 3-mile runs, and some walks. “I like this one,” I told her. “It seems super doable .” I had planned to write this post about all my hopes and dreams of becoming a great Running Lady with a workout schedule, but at the last minute I decided I had to go for a short run just to get a baseline for where I was. So I pulled on my sneakers and left the house at about 1:04 pm. By the time I got back at 1:17 pm I was in pretty good shape.
This is how the 13 minutes went: I walked about a block (until I was sure no one was seeing me), and then I started to run. Or rather, I tried to run, but my ankles did not give me the full range of motion I needed, so the way I moved could be more accurately described as “awkward.” I scrambled for a block and a half before moving on to a slow, wheezing walk. I did this exactly two more times, getting a little more range of motion in my ankles and deviating awkwardly each time before declaring the situation “complete hell” and returning home.
While I was pondering why I hadn’t chosen the “fitness challenge,” like Lifehacker Senior Technology Editor David Murphy, who decided to drink a bunch of water for a month, Beth talked me out of the ledge. She told me that this is not a failure, but a victory! She told me to put a sticker on my calendar today because I was going to run and then I was running. And she gave me a plan for the next time: walk a full five minutes, accelerating and bending my ankles over time, and then running – slowly – until I start to puff and puff. Then take a walk. Rinse and repeat for 10-15 minutes. “All of my intermittent walking counts as ‘running’ time too,” she said, and I was delighted to hear that.
The good news is that it could have been much worse (aside from injury, which at first seemed like a very real possibility). This means that it can only get better from here. I’ll let you know how things are going next week – and if any of you have ever been as pathetic as me and managed to get past the hump, please leave your best advice for me in the comments.