Back in high school, even though I was pretty much overweight, I wasn’t that bad at running. I wasn’t fast, I wasn’t the best one, but I remember that, thanks to our marks being based on regularity as well as distance, I used to get well-graded, for I did manage to run all the way long while remaining very regular in every lap. Thus, recently, I thought to myself: now that the weather is really nice again, shouldn’t I try to run again?
Eeeeh, boy, was it a surprise! While it’s not a problem for me to use a stationary bike or an elliptical machine at the gym for one hour straight, and while I don’t get sore after it anymore, running was a whole other problem. I discovered muscles that I didn’t even know could still hurt - after all, don’t I practise strength training, squats and legs exercises way enough now? I also discovered (again) that keeping my breath controlled on a machine and doing it when the only one involved is my own body, wasn’t the same at all.
Ten minutes. Yup, that’s it. Ten whopping minutes is all I managed to run before I realized that my heartbeat had gone through the ceiling and my legs were really hurting. I didn’t push it more on that day, thinking that I really wasn’t trained at all and should improve my “performances” little by little rather than try to outdo myself and end up sick. Five days later, I was still feeling the soreness in these inner thigh muscles that seemingly don’t work enough, or at least not in a similar way, when I practice strength training.
Granted, I didn’t choose the easiest track to run on either. The village where I live is built on a hillside, thus I went through flat road as well as through to stairs and more-or-less steep slopes, which probably isn’t the best type of place to start running again. Regardless, it still was an indicator of how much I lacked training in this, and I ended up not knowing whether I should laugh or be ashamed.
So, running? Definitely yes, from time to time, at least. I just need to remember that I need to train properly and progressively first, and that it’s like ay other exercise - with practice, the soreness will go. It’d be too bad to get disheartened by this wrong start, wouldn’t it?
- Kery
June 7th, 2005 at 21:14
There was a time when I could run only about 200 meters. Last year I was running for about 45 mins - so I think you develop fitness for certain exercises.
I do feel that running is kinda hard on the old body. Whenever I take a break from running for a while, when I start again - I get the same soreness you are talking about. I think your legs take a real shock from all the impact involved in running.