jogging

so let's be real - i've never been an athlete, and i'll never be an athlete - my parents signed me up for soccer in 5th grade and i HATED it. the anticipation of not knowing when the ball was going to come my way, and the fear of failing my team was entirely too stressful on my little 10 year old self. 2 seasons of that nonsense, and i was DONE. next came a few seasons of volleyball - while i was no all-star, i was marginally better at it. but let's be honest - i'm 5'2"... the ymca team was as far as i was going to go... which was fine with me because i still had terrible anxiety... so my foray into sports ended about as quickly as it started

which leads me to the topic of this post: jogging. and why i love (hate) it.

LOVE:
- it's totally independent and anxiety-free because no one is depending on me.
- it's amazing how fast your endurance builds - i'm on week 6 of the training program and have gone from struggling to run 1.5 minutes to running 8 minutes with no problem... all in a matter of a month!
- anytime, anywhere: treadmill, outdoors, morning/evening - i really have no excuse not to go
- it makes me feel hardcore. which i'm not - i'm just a fluffernutter, but jogging on the treadmill totally beats walking. even if it's only intervals.

HATE:
- it is SO mental: your mind wants to stop even when your body can keep going. and you have to fight your mind all along. or maybe that's just me.
- intimidating: i'm in awe of marathoners who can run 26.2 miles nonstop whenever i'm stilling struggling to do 2 miles. but i'm sure they've trained more than a month :)

anyway, i would encourage anyone reading to try out jogging! i've loved the couch-2-5k program so far! the hardest part is definitely starting - but i think the program breaks it down into managable steps - and it only requires 3 workouts/week!