Running notes

Our bodies are deceitful. They lie to us.

The conventional wisdom is to start running even if you feel like crap. You will be surprised how often everything flips right-side-up ten minutes later. It is as if your body does not want to be stressed but once it accepts that you are the boss it gets with the program.

The conventional wisdom is only half right, at least for those of us around sixty.

You may have noticed that EVERYTHING takes longer as we get older. That ten minutes is now fifteen minutes. Yup, you have to slog through fifteen minutes of aches and pains and lies before you really know how you feel.

Suck it up, Buttercup. That is the new reality.

Yesterday was run number ten. My plan had been to find the threshold for my distance in the first three or four runs. Repeat that for a week to build up some foundational fitness. Then start stretching the distance.

My body had different ideas.

I am still stuck at 2.5 miles. My body sneakily keeps going up-tempo when I am not paying attention. Even when I am paying attention it goes up-tempo. Bastard!

I am pretty sure I could knock out four, maybe even five miles if I slogged along at 12 or 13 minute miles. And my body won't let me. It keeps trying to run ten minute miles. After a mile I have to drop back to a walk because of the pain. I walk for fifty yards and then I start running again. Slowly. For about a hundred yards and then the needle on the speedometer starts creeping back up.

It is not really a problem. Not even an inconvenience. It is a reminder that my brain must consult with my body before making decisions about exercising.

So I have to do things differently. I will be running 2.5 miles until I can make the entire distance at a ten minute pace, give-or-take a bit. After that, if my body doesn't veto the plan, I will increase my running distance.