I blame DS

So as you may know, I'm a faithful subscriber to Self magazine. I discovered it a couple of years ago in my old apartment's workout room, and was drawn to the tear out cards with workout moves on them. (I have every card from the last 2 years in a file, because I'm neurotic that way.) From time to time, they have these get fit challenges and goals. This month, they're having a "reach your goal" challenge, where they designed 4 different plans from "get off the couch" to "run your butt off". For reasons I'm still trying to deduce, I choose the latter.

You see, running is something I particularly hate. I like to blame it on my asthma, but to be honest, I hated it even before I had asthma. There are so many things you can do to feel miserable that are way more fun than running. However, like the plan says, you have to admit that running has some nice health benefits. Not to mention the thigh-slimming parts...

The nice thing about the plan is that it ramps you up. The magazine claims that you can "kick up your calorie burn painlessly and with virtually no extra effort." Let me repeat: PAINLESSLY and with NO EXTRA EFFORT???? Yeah right. I'll believe that when I see it.

Despite my pessimism, I tried it. Before I started this plan, running made me feel like this:

Yes, that's me there, passed out, laying in a puddle of sweat and drool. Miserable.

But then! I tried the plan. Week 1, workout 1: walk fast 1 minute, jog 1 minute; alternate for 15 minutes. Sounds easy, right? It wasn't so bad. Each workout is just a little harder than the last. Each time, I think, "there's no way I can run that many minutes in a row" and each time I turn out to be wrong.

Here we are, week 3, running 6 minutes, walking 1, for a whopping 24 minutes of total running time. It's true, sometimes I feel like this still:

Feet dragging, a trail of sweat and drool in my wake.

But the point is, I'm doing it. And not only that, most of the time I'm still smiling by the end of it. So who knows, perhaps in a week and a half, I'll be running 30 minutes straight (the end goal). If I am, I'm blaming DS for deciding to run with me and keeping me on track. I mean, what kind of anti-running reputation can a goblin have if it's out there actually doing it?