Slow(er) and Short(er)

A little bit more running, or jogging, or shuffling, well anything a bit faster than a brisk walk anyway. A couple more attempts at this addictive exercise were made in the past week or so. First was a round trip to Walmart to buy some small things that I could stuff in my jacket pockets thus freeing my hands. I even considered carrying a small backpack but I figured the pockets would suffice. Off I go jogging for 4 minutes and walking for 1 minute, and because of how slow I have become, it took almost half an hour to get to the store when it used to take me about 22 minutes. No matter, after all, the goal was to try to run again regardless of my ankle ailments. I was going to stop at 45 minutes but managed another 5, then walked about a half mile back home. Nowadays, I would consider that a successful run because it freed me from the stationary machines at home.

Several days later, it was back to the treadmill. I’ve never liked running on the treadmill as much as on the road but I’m beginning to change how I feel about that. The cushioning really helps lessen the impact of my very heavy stride and thus enables me to run continuously without the walk breaks. In this case 45 minutes of non-stop jogging/shuffling. Another major accomplishment for someone who is not supposed to do this type of exercise any more.

After I wrote the draft of this post, I managed a three more runs. The first was last Thursday and lasted a whole hour of the 4 minute:1 minute run/walk. The next run last Saturday also lasted an hour but in a different way. I planned to skip the first walk break but ended up skipping the next and the next and the next until I reached 30 minutes. I did the run/walk the rest of the hour. Surprising that I was able to do that but even more surprising was that the pace for the 30 minute run/walk was about 15 seconds per mile faster than the non-stop jogging. Perhaps I was trying to protect the ankles too much or maybe the second half hour was faster because I was already warmed up. Oh, I also got caught in a 5 minute shower on that cloudy day. Last but not least on Tuesday afternoon, I shuffled for an hour and eight minutes non-stop on the treadmill. Whoa! Easy boy! Remember: shorter! No wonder my ankles were burning afterwards.

 When I run/shuffle/jog nowadays, I have to be very mindful of my stride, i.e. constant awareness of how I plant my feet upon landing so my inner ankle pain is minimal. That means no more pushing the pace even if my breathing feels good, be satisfied no matter how slow I run, and keep the distances a lot shorter than what I’m used to. If that’s what it takes, then so be it. So much for citius, altius, fortius. Hmm, I wonder what the Latin version of slower and shorter are. Anyone???

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