The Quest for a Mile

Well, I decided I would get up and report in first thing this morning before I ran out of things to say! I *did* do my jogging yesterday; unfortunately, my husband came home from work last night and had a headache that quickly escalated into a migraine ... the worst kind of migraine. He was soooo sick, poor guy. So last night was dedicated to taking care of him. I did my jogging around 9:30 last night, but I couldn't write in my blog because the computer is in the bedroom, and I knew the light from the screen -- heck, even the sound of typing on the keyboard -- would've killed him, so I just wrote down my stats. Fortunately, he was able to take some medicine in a decent enough time before his stomach turned on him, and it must have been able to do some good because around 11 last night he said he felt fine. This morning he says he still feels fine, but he is contemplating not going to work for fear of overdoing it. He doesn't get migraines often, but when he does, they are doozies!!

Anyway, for my stats, I jogged for 2:10 and walked for 4 minutes. I ultimately went 2.065 miles, burned 262 calories, and it took me 47 minutes.

You know, there have been some people in my life that I have told that I have started jogging. The response is always the same: "Wow, I could never jog! Way to go!" (Or something like that.) Fact is, I'm not a jogger myself! But everybody's got a starting place, and everybody's gotta build on their starting place.

I guess my biggest inspiration is a guy I saw on Oprah a few years ago (and I'm not the biggest Oprah fan, but this episode really sticks out in my mind). The actual premise of the show was that they had someone one there who was a "germ expert," but as the show went on, I think they actually found a germaphobic coot and gave him camera time. (For example, I distinctly remember him saying that you should throw away toothbrushes after every two weeks, and you should throw away mattress sets every year. I mean, was he for real?!? "Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" is my motto.) Anyway, they very quickly had a man as a guest on the show who used to weigh something like 400 pounds, and he got a treadmill. Everyday he would walk a little bit on it, and he always made himself walk a little more than he did the day before. Then he tried jogging a little bit on it, still pushing himself. Finally he built up the endurance to jog FIVE MILES every day! And he looked so slim and trim!! He had a pair of shoes that he bought the day he bought the treadmill, and they were analyzing the shoes to test for diseases. (The germaphobe almost had a heart attack from the old pair of shoes.) Anyway, I've always remembered that man, and I kind of feel like if he was able to do so well from being so deep in the hole, maybe I can do it, too.

Heck, secret confessions of the Auburn: once I hit a mile, I would love to learn to jog two, then three, then up to five, and I would ultimately love to jog on a speed setting of 6. Don't know how I'm gonna get there, but I had to start somewhere!

And I got the idea of upping my time on the treadmill from a commercial I heard on the radio a few months ago. It was a commercial for a gym that was advertising that they could train people to run marathons. They said that they up your time thirty seconds every day, and "you don't even feel yourself getting stronger. Anyone can do thirty seconds!" Well, I remember laughing out loud in my car, because I wasn't for sure that I could jog even one SET of thirty seconds. Even now, the idea of upping my time by thirty seconds every day would absolutely KILL me. But I can do five seconds. It works for me. :) Slow and steady, right?

Well, I guess I need to climb off of this soapbox. Gotta have something to talk about tonight, right? Until then, guys! Thanks for your encouragement!!

Posted in: jogging, migraines, Oprah on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at at 9:04 AM