I mentioned previously in my very first post that never in a 'bah-gillion' (yes 'bah-gillion) years would you ever caught me running... This is not an exaggeration. Let me try to set this up for you...
I never excelled in phys ed. In fact, I tried to find ways to get out of it. And although I was a dancer from the early age of 5 throughout high school, I still wasn't much into any other physical activity. I have abnormally long legs and I decided that they were best suited for dancing; not running. The ONLY time that I ever ran was when I was forced to during that God-awful class otherwise known as "physical education."
I worked out a little in high school; only because I had workout partner who was very much in LOVE with it; mi Madre. Once I got to University of Florida my freshmen year, all bets were off on that workout nonsense. Looking back, it's a shame though because UF had a pretty impressive gym. A gym that I maybe visited it a total of 4 times in those 4 years. And shameful enough of those 4 times, 2 of them were to watch friends play basketball.
Post-graduation, while still living in Titletown ::ahem:: I mean Gainesville, I maybe tried less than 5 times to workout. Mind you, I lived in G'ville for about 2.5 years after graduation. It wasn't until a year after moved to Virginia that I decided to get serious about this fitness stuff. So in May 2010, I joined the local Gold's Gym; mainly for the class offerings. I figured if I was stuck in a class for an hour, I would have to finish it and couldn't just walk out when I got bored. It was choice between Gold's and American Family Fitness. Gold's won me over because it was newer; as in a didn't smell like a foot and it had (drum roll please...) the cardio cinema (CC). The CC was pretty much the best thing that could happen to me in terms of this running thang (yes, 'thang').
Although I had the membership and every EFT on the 1st of the month reminded me of the investment I was making in my physical health, I still wasn't working out regularly. Then 2011 came and for some reason, I decided although not a direct result of a New Year's resolution, that I was going to get serious about this.
I first discovered that in order to be able to run distance on a treadmill, I was going to need a good distraction ::insert the CC:: One evening while watching "The King's Speech," I had a breakthrough of sorts... I ran for 60 minutes and completed 5.26 miles. A year before that, I'd be lucky if I ran for a measly 8 minutes. And 2-3 months before that, I would run for about 15-20 minutes while listening to the iPod and hop off to find something else to do because I got bored. I found that I was able to do the 60 minutes for 2 reasons... 1) The movie was a great distraction; I actually somewhat forgot that I was running and 2) When I did realize that was running... I was in the 'zone' and got a taste of that runner's high and d*mn it is addicting! Before I experienced the "high," I thought it was a myth. After patting myself on the back post-run (my personal best at the time) I couldn't help but wonder "Was this a fluke? Could I do this again?"
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