Running Day 3

Goal: Run 2 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Repeat five times.

I woke up sore, wobbled over to my drawer of drugs and popped my first 800mg of motrin for the day. Don't worry, I'm not overdosing, it's actually part of my treatment regimen to take three of these puppies every single day. It reduces inflammation in the old lungs. My back ached as I stumbled out of bed today, but my right hip and right knee seem to be on the mend.

So today's goal was the same as Day 1 and Day 2. On those days no single running "burst" lasted more than 90 seconds, despite my goal. Well today (hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen!) my first running burst lasted 2 minutes and 10 seconds! Holy cow I'm a rock star! But the next 6 rounds lasted anywhere from 1 minute to 90 seconds which is not so great, but not worse than the first two days.

My route is about 2 miles long and the first day it took me 32:30. The second day I shaved off 1 whole minute. And today I shaved off another minute, coming in the driveway at 30:30! When I got to the top of the driveway (I'm making that sound more grand than it actually is) I leaned over resting my hands on my knees to catch my breath. I stayed there for about a minute and it felt so good... just... to... stop. I stood up and got super dizzy. I'm pretty sure this is just a side effect of being out of shape. But perhaps it's a side effect of not oxygenating well during exercise. I must investigate further into possibly purchasing a pulse oximeter.

I'm not going to lie to you folks. This running thing sucks. It sucks, sucks, sucks. I hate gasping for breath. I feel like I breathe in and some evil barricade has been built to block the full expansion of my lungs. I want to breathe in more. I need to breathe in more, but it just stops. And I gasp and pant and wince with every breath. Then I choke and sputter and spit. It's really a beautiful thing. I'm just glad I picked my routes to line the outside of our neighborhood, so as to run into less people. More cars, but less actual people. I did run into one people today.. twice! This man was in total pedestrian clothes, like a button up shirt and khaki's and he was strolling around the block. About a mile later, I passed him again. He was going the opposite direction of my lap both times. But still, not breaking a sweat, just strolling along. Probably traveling the same distance as me and I'm practically dying, trying to make good time and there he goes. Strolling through the park. Ugh.