Like a lot of people during Spring, fitness has been on my mind of late. In an effort to put an end to the start-stop-start nature of my fitness regime, I’ve taken up jogging every other day. I’ve clocked 67 miles as of this writing in the last 6 weeks.
This is actually the first time in my life I’ve jogged regularly for fitness, though I’ve dieted and done strength training throughout the years. My aversion to jogging started at an early age when a bout of pneumonia combined with bronchitis put me near death. After a weeks stay in the hospital, I found that the heavy breathing that resulted from physical activity was relatively painful for me. Outside of wrestling with the stair climber during infrequent gym visits, that aversion to cardiovascular exercise literally lasted up and until last month.
As anyone would tell you, the resulting high from jogging regularly is addictive, and I’m hoping to keep up the regime from here on. Since I am so new to this, I wanted to provide some advice to other potential first time joggers or people looking to adopt a fitness regime in general.
1. Track your progress - I use the Nike+ GPS app for iPhone in combination with MapMy Walk, but you could just as well pick up a Nike Fuel Band or a super affordable pedometer. Whatever I’m doing, I want to have a record of it. Why? Because seeing my progress is a huge ego boost. Seeing that count showers me with a sense of pride and accomplishment every single time.
2. Don’t count calories - Though the Nike+ GPS app counts calories, I prefer not to tangle that number up in my diet. If jogging becomes part of the math you do for a diet, then it will end with the diet.
3. Run against a distance, not against time - Running for 30 minutes means I don’t care what I accomplish in that amount of time. Running against 3 miles with a goal to accomplish it in 30 minutes means I’m running 3 miles no matter what. Time is irrelevant. If I feel great after 3 miles, then I can push to a 4th or even further. If you don’t have a lot of time, set a smaller distance goal. It’s simple and helps you develop a pace.
4. Be comfortable - Early on I was jogging in my regular sneakers, which was a no go and left my feet sore afterwards. After some consideration about purchasing new sneakers, I hauled out an old pair of Onitsuka Tigers and have been running in them since. What’s the sense of splashing out money on new shoes when you’re just getting the hang of jogging? Relatively soon I’ll upgrade to an entry level running shoe, which I’ll pick up from the outlets. People jogged long before Air Max Jordan’s were invented. Don’t let money get in the way of the routine. Long ago, I picked up a sweat wicking shirt and shorts from Target for less than $15. They’re doing the job just fine.
5. Don’t over think it or make excuses - Some people are all about the morning jog. Having never been a morning person, I think that sounds awful. If you aren’t already getting up at 6am, why force that on yourself now? Jog when you can. If having a schedule helps you, so be it. I jog in the evening, go to bed tired and sleep better than I have in ages. If it’s rainy or miserable, I jog in place in the basement. It gets done and not because of the weather or because I didn’t wake up early enough.
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Having written all of this, I am of course creating an unbreakable contract for my continued jogging, which I think I am fine with. So far jogging has been incredibly rewarding, and divorcing it from weight loss or short term gains means that it’s been much easier to adopt into my life.
Speaking as someone who is relatively “big boned” and not at all the average runner build, I can say that I’m the last person to think I could really do this. Simplifying it has really, really helped. It goes without saying that if you have joint or muscle pain that you should probably seek medical attention. So far I’ve seen little in the way of negative effects of my running, but continued stress on my knees may eventually change that.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
