As much as I’ve liked the Body for Life program, I still haven’t seen any weight loss. I’m sure this is entirely my fault since I’m not following the food plan and I’m a lazy cardio person. The only part that I’m doing consistently right is the weight lifting portion and I’m seeing great results with that. I’ve made some great muscle tone and now it is time to start losing the fat to show it off. It is time to start running.

I have a bad history with running. I have horrible shin splints since track days in gym class in high school. I’ve even gotten shin splints while driving. My dad is a distance runner and he never really believed me. I’ve been to sports medicine specialists who basically told me that I’m out of luck, forget about it, you just aren’t made to run. But then I see people from shows like The Biggest Loser having everyone run and figure that if they can do why can’t I? I like reading Runner’s World magazine. I really should be a runner.

I finally found a biomechanical explanation of shin splints that makes sense. I have a medical mind. Explain how something happens and I can handle it. Here is Cool Runnings’ explanation of Lower leg pain
. Basically, the calves are too tight so they need to be stretched. At the same time strengthen the front of the leg with exercises they describe. If this fixes me I’m going to be very annoyed at all the doctors who never said there were things I could do.

I’ve been stretching and doing exercises for several days. This morning I did workout one of the
Couch to 5K program. It is a nine week program to gradually get you in shape to run a 5K (3.1 miles). You work out three times a week. For week one you warmup with a brisk walk for five minutes then jog for 60 seconds and walk for 90 seconds. Repeat for 20 minutes.

I did my jogging today super slow. I was concentrating on lengthening my calves (thank you yoga) and not pounding into the ground. I was probably going slower when I jogged than when I walked. But I feel fine. No shooting pain through my shins while I ran at all.

I had a horrible time keeping track of what repeat I was on. I can’t promise I did 8 sets of run then walk. I couldn’t even remember exactly when I started to see if I did 20 minutes. I need a stopwatch or a more focused brain.
Cardio-wise I wasn’t huffing and puffing probably due to the slow speed. But once I quit and was walking to cool down I started sweating heavily. I also run at a park where you have to climb a long hill back to your car and that wasn’t easy today.

I’ll be doing the program by time instead of distance since I’m on trails and not a track. Both options are in the program. At the end I should be running for 20 minutes. Will that be 5K? Probably not. A 20 minute 5K is a respectable race time for a person my age. Not going to happen. But right now I can’t even imagine running that far even if monsters were chasing me so anything will be an improvement.

The nine week program will be over on September 10. Hopefully this will make me prettier on the beach on vacation in October!