Born to Run

Preface: Ok. I read the book Born to Run earlier this year. Now anyone who knows me, knows I do not run. My exercise of choice has always been laying on the couch with the occasional swimming laps; I have never exercised on a consistent basis. I also hate gyms. The idea of *going* to a gym gives me intense feelings of laziness and avoidance. On my mission, I always felt horrible for my companions who liked to exercise every morning. Me and mornings are mortal enemies, and when you add the possibility to exercise to that morning, it is not a good mixture. I think the best was when I was with Pam and there was a track behind our apartment. This was great because she could jog around the track, as I would attempt to make one slow lap and then sit in the stands and watch her run while trying to stay awake. It was a happy time.

Another aspect of my personality that is worth mentioning is that I'm prideful really stubborn. When people tell me I *have* to do something, I don't do it. People think they are really clever once they hear me tell them this fact, because they then attempt reverse psychology on me. Please note: I am not an idiot. This then makes you loose respect and credibility in my book, and I want to do whatever you want me to do less than before. To be honest, unless I want to do something or am apathetic to the cause, you have a low chance of convincing me to do anything.  I know, I'm a terrible person. I think now that you know this about me, you will find this post ironic. Not hipster-ironic, but literary element ironic. Please see the second definition for further clarification.

iro·ny

 noun \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\

: the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny

: a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected

This is a picture of my dad and me "working on our arms together". It was a joke based on something we saw on Chuck the other day. lol. 

Story Time:

There are moments in life when you hear or read something, and it rings true to you. This happened when I read Born to Run. He makes valid assertions and the logic behind his ideas spoke to me.  It is a non-fiction book about his interaction with a tribe that still exists in the canyons of Mexico who have more-or-less rejected modernization. They live a simple life, and run, a lot. They run for about 50 miles straight with no problem....and did I mention they do it more-or-less barefoot? The more I read this book, the more I realized: I. was born. to run. That is mode of transportation my body is built for. Ever since the beginning of time, people ran to get around...without running shoes. If you are not convinced after reading this book, I don't care. You might be crazy. I might be crazy. It really doesn't matter, because the point is, it convinced *me* that running is a good idea. After hundreds of attempts to convince me that exercise is not the enemy, this book changed my mind.  I bought myself some barefoot running shoes. Not the toe shoes that still give more support than you would have without any shoes, but the Xero Shoes that were created to replicate the shoes that the people in Born to Run use. An important note to make is: one cannot just simply start to run barefoot. Your feet are used to shoes, so your feet muscles are underdeveloped. Like any muscle, you have to build it up; build up to running barefoot. I started jogging around the lake by my hotel, but like every time I attempt to work out, I got bored quickly. I put it on the back burner.

Then Teri Jo's birthday came up. We went out to dinner, and over dinner, she was saying she wanted to do a 9 to 5. A 9 to 5? What is that? She explained that this sports store, Luke's Locker, does a 5K training program with different levels. It goes with the most nonathletic beginners (aka me) to people who are real runners. It is a 9 week program, and at the end, you do a 5K. I told her to let me know when sign up was, because I was intrigued. I wanted to start running. 

Pam is so supportive of my crazy.

The time came to sign up. I did. The first day of training, with the Saturday group run, was when I was in Utah. I was staying with Pam and Trey, and told Pam that no matter what I say, she has to make me run. I didn't want to start my first day of running being lazy and skipping the running-part. We jogged. Even though my sister warned me I wouldn't be able to with the altitude difference. We did it. I was so proud. My lungs burned, but I did it.

I started the walk/run program, and in the beginning it was TERRIBLE. I hated it, but since I made the mental commitment, I did not want to quit. The second Saturday group run wasn't a happy omen either. I woke up with terrible cramps and wanted to die. This did not give me any desire to get up early and go work out. Nevertheless, I went. I couldn't find where Luke's Locker was, so I was late. But I was there. I walked slowly the entire time, but I did it. I feel like that was me the first few week. I did it, and that was as positive as I could get. Running was making me more tired. I also had really bad pain in my calves after about 3 minutes of power walking which lasted the rest of my work out for weeks. When I brought this up with the Luke's Locker people doing the group runs they would say "It sounds like you need new shoes". NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! When they said this, I just smiled, nodded, and ignored their advice. Why? Because one idea in Born to Run is that we've been running long before specially made running shoes, and running injuries have increased ever since the shoe industry has started creating expensive specialized running shoes. My interpretation of the data presented to me was: running shoes weaken your foot muscles, and it doesn't matter what shoes you wear running, whether they are cheap or not supportive, because your body is made for barefoot running. Maybe I interpreted it wrong, but I don't believe I need new expensive running shoes to make my calf muscles to stop aching when I run. 

I brought this problem up to my friend Alison, who was a cross-country runner in high school. We went to see Ender's Game together with some other friends who were also on the high school cross country team. I took their running advice to heart. Alison said that power walking uses different muscles than running, so I am working out different muscles. She said to not start off power walking, but start off walking slower. She also recommended me jogging slower when I told her about my apprehension about having to jog 14-minutes straight for the upcoming Saturday jog. I thought both was good advice. It worked. 

Since those moments, my calves have stopped hurting. Honestly, I think my body just was freaking out because I was finally using it and making it work. I can power walk for 10+ minutes without the intense calf pains. My 5K is next week, and I have to say, my attitude has changed. I had an off week last week and only went to the gym twice. This week, I decided to go again after Lindsay gave me words of encouragement: "Don't be lazy." I did, and I jogged for a full 20 minutes consistently without stopping. Now I'm sure many people are like "that's nothing", but for me, this is a complete change of lifestyle. The craziest part: I'm enjoying it. I like that I can see myself progressing. I like that I used to feel like dying in the attempt to jog for 5 minutes straight, and now, it's not a problem. There are some days that I want the work day to be over, just so I can go to the gym and RUN. I was running yesterday, and it made me smile, while running. It was a crazy. Please note, this change did not happen immediately. It was hard to start, and I'd say it took me a month to genuinely like running. 

The only downside is, I have not been loosing weight at all.  I have an aunt, who my whole life is always like "you shouldnt to eat that" or "that has a lot of carbs". As long as I can remember, she pretty much always makes comments about weight and eating. This has only increased my belief that, you shouldn't obsess about what you eat to try an be skinny. You should be healthy and happy. If you feel good about yourself and your body, that's all that really matters. I've tried not to obsesses about my weight like that, because I think it makes people unhappy. Also, I love food. Nevertheless, I try to be aware of my weight. This past year at work has increased my stress and decreased my happiness levels. This is causing me to eat my feelings of stress and depression. It has also caused me to reach my end-of-mission weight. This is not good. I've been working out at the gym, but I've also been eating crap food. 

I was talking with Teri Jo, and she mentioned that she was loosing weight. I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was using the My Fitness Pal app. The free version. I'm not going to lie, when I hear "counting calories" I think of starving yourself. It gives you a calorie intake goal based on the activity of your lifestyle and how much you want to loose each week. I'm on my 3rd week of using it, and I'm not starving. I think, if anything, it's making more conscious about what I'm eating. I feel like I'm in control. Aka, it's feeding my OCD tenancies. I like it. I'm not starving myself. I'm making wiser food choices, but still get to splurge with my calories if I know I want to eat, say, a slice of the homemade apple pie I made on Sunday. Plus, you get to see the results. 

Bottom line. I'm feeling really good. I feel healthy. I feel like I am born to run, and I want to run. Fingers crossed that I can keep this up after my training program is over, and I finished the 5K.