First Time Around!

Living in a post-work world has been lovely thus far. I wake up late and well-rested, I've been exercising, reading The Audacity of Hope, seeing shows, and slowly (and unsurely) working on a musical of my own. I get randomly anxious, of course, but I tend to do that when I'm not working. I also get not-so-randomly anxious...I should probably pick a day to move out and contact some movers, eh? Pshaw. Pura vida. Om.

Today, I achieved my first goal of the summer: Jogging all the way around the reservoir in Central Park without stopping. This is part of my getting into shape plan, which now involves continuing to jog around the reservoir once a day without stopping. Hopefully I'll gradually get faster.

My initial goal was to start with one lap and work my way up to two. I guess I underestimate how unfit I really am/was...or maybe I just underestimated how long 1.5 miles is because all of my in-shape friends say obnoxious things like "Oh, I just did a nice easy three mile run today," or "Yeah, that was a good seven mile run," or "I'm working on getting my 6.5 minute mile down to 6 minutes." (I'm looking at you, Greg.) In any case, when you haven't run since you were nine, 1.5 miles is hard.

So my first day I had hoped to run a full lap but wound up running half. And I was in a lot of pain. The second day was worse. Much worse. I didn't even make it a quarter of the way around. The third day, sore of leg, blistered of foot, and broken of spirit, I speed walked. I took the fourth day off. Yet somehow, with some stretching, serious pacing, more selectivity of my music, and the misery of those first three days behind me, I started improving this week. Monday was the first day I did better than day one, making it over a mile before walking. On Tuesday I made it almost all the way around. And today, for the first time, I made it all the way around the track! Yay! 1.5 miles of pure jogging, baby!

Now, when I say I paced myself this week, I mean I really slowed the fuck down. I've been operating under the jogging philosophy that my legs should always hurt more than my lungs. It hasn't entirely worked out that way, but it certainly helps me at the beginning when I just want to run and know that if I do, I'll never make it around.

All right, time to switch the laundry. More updates TK.