If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that over the course of nine weeks, I earnt twenty seven rewards. A few people asked me what I was doing and what the rewards were going to be.
What was I doing?
I was running! Well, trying to. After several conversations over the last few months between myself and my man and some infectious enthusiasm caught from Twitter, I set out to attempt the Couch to 5K programme. Now, I should explain. I do not run! I am short and buxom, which as a combination isn’t good for running. I am asthmatic and I have painful joints. Again, not perfect ingredients for running. Add onto this the fact that even when I was exercising before, I avoided running at all costs. The last time that I ran was in the third year at secondary school when I fell over in front of the whole school. It is fair to say that I had a huge emotional barrier and fear of running. Up until my professional life dissolved into a pit of debilitating stress a couple of summers ago, I had been exercising regularly at the gym. Work had put a stop to that and all of my hard won fitness was lost. With all of this in mind, it was with great trepidation that I downloaded the podcasts.
My man, as you should realise from this blog, is wonderful. To give me some extra support and an incentive, he promised one reward for each run completed. The promise of those rewards added the extra level that I needed. I am so grateful to him for them.
The first attempt wasn’t wonderful. I tried the treadmill. the pain in my legs, the breathing and my struggles with the non-responsive pace of it meant that I had to stop at two thirds of the way through. I was so distraught at being a failure and scared at what this meant for me. After reassuring words from my man who was determined not to allow me to class it as a failure, I put some thought into what to do.
I changed things a bit. Instead of using the treadmill, I swapped to the elliptical trainer. The action of that piece of equipment is much kinder to my joints. I knew that if I can exercise on that, it will build up both my fitness and also improve my joints and hopefully make proper running possible later.
It was an enormous relief that on attempt number two, I completed the podcast. Since then, I have been completely determined and have ‘run’ three times a week – earning another reward with every one of them. As each week drew to a close, I would nervously check the description of the increase in running needed in the next one. Some weeks made me gulp and gasp at what was going to be needed. For some sessions, I had to tap into every ounce of my stubbornness, wipe the sweat out of my eyes and push through the pain to get there. Over the nine weeks, I have gone from desperately clinging to each second completed and praying for the recovery walks, to being able to ‘run’ continuously for thirty minutes and now setting myself targets to extend my distance and speed. I am even, now that the weather is improving, about to attempt running outside.
I am, in my next post, going to share about my rewards – but I felt it was important to not only tell you how I earned them, but also to share that determination and a little help with motivation can make the seemingly impossible achievable. For now, I am seriously proud of my achievements and still more than a little surprised that I made it.
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