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ladyofastolatI'm slightly flirting with the idea of trying running. I've barely run a step since the misery of school cross-country lessons, plodding pathetically through Pittville Park and weaving through drunken racegoers attendees (who obviously couldn't have been there for every cross-country lesson, and perhaps weren't there for any of them, yet have a prominent role in my mental image of the classic cross-country lesson, even so.)
I did a lot of walking in the first few months of this year, and I mostly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the sense of achievement, anyway, and even now I like being able to dance 4 Morris dances in a row and end them feeling as if I've done little more than a stroll in the park, while everyone around me is collapsing in exhaustion. However, walking takes a lot of time - hence the "mostly", above; it was a huge time commitment, and that was sometimes oppressive. Unfortunately, anything less than about 15 miles feels rather useless now - very pleasant when in company, but not a Real Walk - but walks of 20 miles plus take time. What with dancing commitments and various other things, I've only got that sort of time between November and March. Additionally, I'm really not good in hot weather, so prefer not to do long walks in the summer.
Which leaves running. I came across a mention of the "Couch to 5K" programme somewhere on LJ, and looked it up. It promises to take someone from total couch potato to being able to run 5 kilometres over the course of 9 weeks, and all the user reviews report huge success. It only involves half an hour of exercise 3 days a week, and it looks as if it might allow me to maintain my current level of walking fitness without having to give up half my weekends to long walks. It starts very manageably - 5 minutes of walking to 1 minute of running - and I could do it nice and early in the morning, before the weather gets warm - and before neighbours are up to watch my ungaingly flailing.
So now I'm dilemmaing about shoes. I have a tendency to walk on the insides of my feet. As a result, a few years ago merely walking half of Walk the Wight left me so broken with joint pain that I couldn't dance for months. Getting good walking boots with solid ankle support fixed that, and nowadays I won't embark on any walk of more than a mile or two without wearing them. Therefore I don't want to try any running without proper shoes... but I don't want to splash out on shoes if this whole thing turns out to be a silly passing whim that I don't stick with for more than a few days.
Dither dither dither...
I did a lot of walking in the first few months of this year, and I mostly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the sense of achievement, anyway, and even now I like being able to dance 4 Morris dances in a row and end them feeling as if I've done little more than a stroll in the park, while everyone around me is collapsing in exhaustion. However, walking takes a lot of time - hence the "mostly", above; it was a huge time commitment, and that was sometimes oppressive. Unfortunately, anything less than about 15 miles feels rather useless now - very pleasant when in company, but not a Real Walk - but walks of 20 miles plus take time. What with dancing commitments and various other things, I've only got that sort of time between November and March. Additionally, I'm really not good in hot weather, so prefer not to do long walks in the summer.
Which leaves running. I came across a mention of the "Couch to 5K" programme somewhere on LJ, and looked it up. It promises to take someone from total couch potato to being able to run 5 kilometres over the course of 9 weeks, and all the user reviews report huge success. It only involves half an hour of exercise 3 days a week, and it looks as if it might allow me to maintain my current level of walking fitness without having to give up half my weekends to long walks. It starts very manageably - 5 minutes of walking to 1 minute of running - and I could do it nice and early in the morning, before the weather gets warm - and before neighbours are up to watch my ungaingly flailing.
So now I'm dilemmaing about shoes. I have a tendency to walk on the insides of my feet. As a result, a few years ago merely walking half of Walk the Wight left me so broken with joint pain that I couldn't dance for months. Getting good walking boots with solid ankle support fixed that, and nowadays I won't embark on any walk of more than a mile or two without wearing them. Therefore I don't want to try any running without proper shoes... but I don't want to splash out on shoes if this whole thing turns out to be a silly passing whim that I don't stick with for more than a few days.
Dither dither dither...
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-04 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-04 01:48 pm (UTC)