JOSH: How are you doing on your jogging goal?
ME: Well, I really haven’t done any jogging yet.
JOSH: Why? What are you afraid of?
ME: Looking unattractive while I’m running. Breaking the treadmill. Falling off the treadmill and breaking myself.
This exchange happened on Wednesday while I was walking on the dreadmill. Josh’s response to my fears was to crank the dreadmill speed from 3.6 to 4.5. As I watched him press the speed button, I freaked a little but I picked up my pace. I was jogging. I didn’t break or fall off the dreadmill. Yes, I’m certain I was unattractive but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
When Josh did my progress check-in a couple months ago, he wanted to test me jogging on the dreadmill. I pleaded with him to let me work on it on my own. I promised to show him my progress after a couple months. He relented. And despite the looming future assessment, I effectively avoided getting started on jogging because I was afraid.
#1387 reason why having Josh as my personal trainer has been great. He gently and firmly pushes me. He only made me jog for 30 seconds and then he brought the speed down to 2.0 for a minute and then we did it again at a higher rate. And so it began against my will, I’m jogging.
This morning within my 20 minute dreadmill homework, I did 6 sprints at 30 seconds each. ‘Sprints’ is probably an exaggerated description when it comes to jogging. Still, my heart was pounding. I was sucking wind. And I was drenched in sweat. An observer might have thought I had just ran a marathon. Unattractive much?! Yes, jogging on the dreadmill, has to be some of my least attractive moments.
I reported this morning’s workout to Josh. He was and always is a cheerleader on all my attempts. I told him it was a good/bad workout. I felt proud I worked out. My legs were really feeling our recent session. And I woke up late… this week has been exhausting me and I’m just seasonally tired. Yet, I wanted to practice jogging. Now, that I know I can do it, even for 30 seconds, I have a baseline to improve from. I always strive to be better than I am. And of course, I want to be able to jog the entire 20 minutes so I get more steps in on my fitbit. Ultimately, I don’t have to look attractive while jogging but it would be nice to look at ease in the movement.