i slipped out of my room into the rain, and i went running for my health
mood: 
rejuvenated
rejuvenatedmusic: Hugh Blumenfeld - The Snail
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ashacat and I went to the venerable and redoubtable Eastern Mountain Sports, a local New England outdoor sports equipment Emporium--notable for employing a dedicated and knowledgeable assortment of ski bums, climbing bums, hiking bums, kayaking bums, etc.--to buy her shoes and harness. Meanwhile, I've been making noises for a while about cancelling my gym membership (BORING) and taking up running again, in the full knowledge that this will be a process full of misery and despair.
See, I used to be a runner. I was never a very competitive runner, because I don't have the build for speed, but I loved trail running, and I was adequate at middle distances. (If I were a football player, I would probably make a pretty good halfback, let's put it that way. Good Eastern European stock: "When ox die, harness wife to plow.")
I suck at jogging, mind you. I'm not good enough at pacing myself to jog. I like to run.
I had a lot of joint problems in high school and college, and while I could still manage endurance sports like racewalking and hiking (at least until the bout with mono), my knees and hips wouldn't take the impact of running. (It turned out not to be lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or half a dozen other things, and eventually I walked out with a diagnosis of juvenile onset osteoarthritis, a naproxen prescription, and a cane. These days, they'd probably call it fibromyalgia. However, since it went into spontaneous remission in my twenties after a heavy course of antibiotics for a lung infection, I now harbor suspicions that what I had was chronic Lyme disease. Anyway, that's all backstory.)
Well, EMS is in the throes of their winter clearance, and what with one thing and another, while the
ashacat was trying on climbing shoes, I walked out with the pair of North Face trail runners that were marked down almost into my price range, and two pairs of Smartwool running socks. (I also got two pairs of hiking socks, because dammit, there will be hiking this summer.)These are very silly shoes. The innovative lacing system is, well, a winch. And a bunch of very fine cables run through the body of the shoe, all of which tighten when you twist the little wheel on the heel. Silly, yes.
But wow, do they fit. And I think the socks weigh more.
So this morning, I did something I haven't done in twenty years. I got up, put on my workout pants and the sort of scary-ass sports bra a DD-girl needs for running in, put on my socks and shoes, grabbed a t-shirt, put my hair in a ponytail, and went for a two-mile run in the rain.
It wasn't an unbroken two mile run, mind you--I've been hitting the treadmill and the ski machine at the gym, but that's not a thing like actually getting out and running over slate sidewalks in the early morning mist. But I managed six intervals (I didn't time--I just ran until my chest and arches hurt too much, and then I stopped and walked until I could run again. Got to the halfway point, stopped for five minutes of stretching and begging to die, and turned around and came back.
Two miles in twenty-five minutes, not counting the five minutes of stretching. Not a great time, by any means, but a beginning. And I have a 5.2-mile route mapped out for Eventually. (It's my walking route when I am going for a walk to go for a walk, not as an adjunct to errands downtown, so I know it well.)
So I ran this morning in the rain, through the old part of town with the ancient trees and the slate sidewalks. And I'm already looking out the window at the rain, wishing I were back out there.
Tomorrow, I may see if I can do it again.
240.7 miles to Lothlorien
And now I need to go take a shower, start some laundry, and get to work on this book I'm supposedly writing.
I think she was a middle distance runner.
The translation wasn't clear.
//ignores whole entire rest of post
....oh my God, I'm in love. (I dunno what my actual bra size is anymore, other than "Oh don't even try the shopping mall.")
Re: //ignores whole entire rest of post
I own three.
Re: //ignores whole entire rest of post
When I took up running, for the first few months, nearly every step was misery. I'm really not sure what it was that fuelled me to keep going despite that.
Now, of course, I look forward to it and get a little squirrelly if I go too long without.
And I am so fucking sick of the ski machine I could bite something. *g* Also, my gym is on a low slow slide into being extremely icky and gross.
Climbing is good. But it's too strenuous for every day.
They're tailored.
Yes, tailored socks.
They're amazing.
Which I should be doing anyway. ;-)
Here's another rec for the Smartwool socks, and Title Nine.
My stage-3 osteo-arthritic knees salute you. I used to live with the woods in my back yard ( a little sw of Nashua, NH), a great break for when words won't come and the dog and I need to stretch our legs. Now it's sidewalks and pavement, unless I drive somewhere. My hiking boots are in the closet, waiting for the weekend.
One heel spur, Achilles tendonitis, and other issues later...I still long for those days because at times I was good at it, y'know? Was edging into six-minute mile territory and passing people on road runs. But blowing my knees out with synovitis in my 30s kinda put paid to high impact stuff. Way my body is, my bones and muscles are good--it's the tendons and bursa that blow out, and I've been told that running is Off The List.
I do wish I'd taken up downhill skiing in my 20s instead of my late 40s. I seem to be decent at that--and I'd be hucking some sick stuff even now!
scary?
Or would be, if I wasn't giggling somewhat hysterically at the name. Sigh. Running with DD-cups isn't much fun.
But thanks for the link. That one looks way more comfortable than my current one.
Heck yeah! I'm from that tribe, too. A friend of mine and I used to say that, if there was ever a famine, all our purty ectomorph friends would die quickly, but we'd survive, dammit.
My physio says I can run again (a wee bit) and my mental health thanks him muchly.
I ran the long races in track in high school (might have in college if we'd had a team). I was an okay runner, but I was really only doing it for the social aspects. I did most of my hardcore running for drill team in the summer before football season started.
Now, I just do half an hour on the treadmill at the gym. I'm pretty obsessive about seeing how much time I've been running, how far I've gone, and how many cals I've burned.
And I cannot imagine every actually having to wear a sports bra. Weird.
Bah! Apparently they'll license it out to anyone now. *mock grumpy*
I remember when I was headed up a chairlift with another boarder who was [i]prototyping[/i] the damn thing for Vans. I thought it would be [i]our[/i] technology!
In all seriousness though, it is a pretty 'omg-awesome' binding system, particularly for activities where your foot changes shape/orientation a lot. Apparently the patent goes back to 1999, and they've been licensing the tech out to all sorts of companies. Good for them!