Sunday Sundries: Run, Run, Run

Firstly: My deepest and most sincere apologies for not writing a Sunday Sundries post last week. I don't have a good excuse at all, other than that Sundays are family days that tend to consist of getting up-going to my grandad's house-eating-not having internet til the evening when inevitably I just want to watch TV or whatever. Like I said, not an excuse, but just an inevitable chain of Sunday events.

Probably I should write a weekly update post on a day other than a Sunday*, but ehhhh, no.

So, it's been two weeks. I would say a lot has happened, but it kind of really hasn't. This last week I worked extra hours for no overtime pay and pretty much no thanks, and to say that I'm so over my job is a giant understatement. I know it's not the best idea to be mean about your job on the internet, so, you know, no details, but I'm definitely feeling undervalued and SO ANGRY I WANT TO PUNCH THINGS at the moment. So, you know, if anyone knows of anything... *winks significantly*.

But anyway. Since it's the weekend and I'm trying not to think about it, let's talk about the thing that's probably been on my mind the most recently, and that thing is running. 

Totally what I wear to run.

You might not know how ridiculous it is that I want to talk about running. I mean, you might, considering that I write exclusively about reading books and watching TV and movies, all of which are sedentary activities, and none of which contribute to fitness in any way. But you probably don't know just how much I hate(d) running- just the pure, PE style horror of having to run and then being out of breath and still having to run and feeling like you're dyyyying and just no. No.

Things have changed in my mind a little bit over the last year or so- the internet is such a great resource for anything you might be interested in, and there were a few bloggers I already liked and felt an affinity with who started writing posts about running and how amazing it feels, and I was... intrigued. Not intrigued enough to do anything stupid like actually running, but intrigued nonetheless. Enough to put 'attempt to do a couch-to-5k thing' (note the word 'attempt' in there) on my 24 before 25 list, and yes I realise it's March now.

So, last Monday morning, I put on my neglected trainers and left the house early to attempt to do a couch to 5k thing. And I did it. I did 8 minutes more running than I've done since I left school, and I felt incredibly (over) impressed with myself. I ached terribly for three whole days afterwards, but I kept going and, incredibly, it got easier. Which made me feel amazing, and made aching feel like it was a good thing and all sorts of other decent stuff that I never expected to get from running, at all.

Let's be real here. I've just finished week two of the Couch to 5K podcast I've downloaded, which meant running for 90 seconds, recovering for 120 and repeat. I am in no way an experienced runner, and I don't even know how I'm going to feel about the whole thing when I get to stages where I have to run for, you know, longer than 90 seconds at once. 

But here's what I do know. Before last week, I hadn't run IN MY WHOLE LIFE unless someone was making me. After that first run, my ribs hurt more than they ever had, I could barely walk up stairs and, you know, everything hurt. I could have easily given up then, but I didn't and the next time I went, it got easier, and I was suddenly like 'OH! This is how exercise works!' and it was honestly the biggest revelation ever. 

I'm going to stop going on about this now, because there's not a lot more I have to say about it at this point- suffice to say, the basics are: I am running. I don't hate it. It's all good. I will definitely have more to say about this in the future, but I'm happy to leave it here for now. 

*To be fair, I am writing this on Saturday morning, so.