Wednesday, Week Two - The Dutch Doctor

I'm not built for running. I'm too big, too stocky, too heavy, too awkward. I'm not gazelle graceful. I look okay while sprinting, but still a little lion-like, floppy, powerful and very out of breath afterward, usually with nothing to show for it. My lanky runner friends spring agiley through the spring grass, spritely wiping dew from their barely sweating brows and then have a joyous salad and a cup of water. They exist on air and adrenaline. I like to eat and lounge, not always in that order. I've been a swimmer, a soccer and tennis and raquetball player. But I only squeaked past the running bits. More recently, I've noticed that if I walk fast my fat parts itch. Definitely not inspiration to run that marathon. Once, I even began training for such a fat-itching marathon - through a game park in Africa - until shin splints sidelined me midway through my first training week. The kindly Dutch doctor told me I should think of taking up another sport since I would never be a runner and I haven't tried since. Not until my partner and I bought an industrial strength treadmill in October in a last ditch effort to lose weight.

To our credit, the treadmill never languished dustily. It never stood in for the clothes hangers. I walked on it once or twice a week and D. did the same. We started seeing a nutritionist. But in February, I still hadn't lost any weight. Oh sure, my body fat percentage went down (somewhat) but my blood pressure was still big-person-high and neither D. or I had cracked 3.5 on the treadmill. But then she started running and, the nerve, bragging about the rush. She wanted to do it all the time. And of course, that made me want to do it too. And so, about two weeks ago, I started running. Though I don't want to pollute the internet with a journal/food log/exercise tracker that doesn't mean anything to anyone but me, I know there are other shin-splinted, fat-itching, too big, too floppy, too tired of faking it, big people out there who might want to see someone else's path. That, and I like to see my progress in pretty colors.

W5 - 3.5, R5 - 4.5, W2 - 3.5, R8 - 4.3, W2 - 3.5, R11 - 4.3, W5 - 3.5, W2 - 3.0 - 40min.