I always hated running. I tried it a few times when I was twenty-something, but gave up in disgust. Now, almost 30 years later, I decided to give it another shot. Without any enthusiasm, but because a friend told me it could help to relieve my chronic lower-back problems (general pain & stiffness).
I started last year, and running tuned out to be sort of fun – apparently I started, 30 years ago, much to fast and so became exhausted in minutes. Running turns out to be fun if you start really slow…
After a couple of weeks, my lower back gave out. That was not directly related to running: giving out is what my lower back did from time to time. Then winter kicked in and I couldn’t run because of snow & ice. In spring I had to psych myself to get off the couch, which took to June, and then the holidays came and I went on a trip and couldn’t get myself to continue running.
Back in august, I picked up Get Running where I left off in June (OK, it took a few re-runs of earlier weeks to get in shape again) and last week I finished Get Running: now I can run for 30 minutes quite easily. I’m looking forward to each run and feel great afterwards.
Also my lower back is much better now (*knocks on wood*). Half a year ago I couldn’t pick up a fallen pencil without squatting and getting up with a deep grunt. Now I can pick things up from the floor just by bending over with (almost) straight legs (thanks, I guess, to the stretching after each run).
The big question is: now what? I installed a new app, ‘Run keeper’ and I am trying to create some DIY running schedules that will coach me to my next goal: running 10 K on 16 march 2013 (which will be my 50th birthday
Keep running!
Rob