Miles and miles from here

[kitchen_kink]

I just got back from the gym, which I rode a bike to and from, in the rain, and while there, jogged for 20 minutes, or over a mile and a half, without stopping to walk.

This is unheard of in my previous experience. But after running nearly 10 minutes in a row the other day, I did my five-minute warmup today and then, after five minutes, figured, "why not ten?" And after ten, why not fifteen? Then all of a sudden, I'd run the whole thing.

What makes me furious is that for all the required gym classes I suffered through in school, nobody ever taught me *how* to run, or how to enjoy it. We were simply required to do it and not ask questions. From the time I was small and had to do the 600 yard dash, I recall being unable to do it. I'd run my little heart out, but after a quite short time, I'd have to stop, panting and wheezing. I'd walk for a little while, feeling the stitch in my side, my tongue swelling, the taste of iron in my mouth. But no matter how long I walked I couldn't regain the ability to run again, and when I reached the end of the course I would collapse and need to catch my breath for at least ten minutes. Meanwhile, at home, my older cousin would challenge me to foot races, giving me a ten second head start and still creaming me easily.

By high school I'd pretty much decided that I am One Who Runs Only When Chased, and, as in all other affairs of gym class, wore my athletic ineptitude as a badge of pride. (It got me teased slightly less than if I actually tried to do well.) At some point in our junior year, we were forced to run a mile. We trained for it for several weeks, basically by getting out there every day and running as far as we could.

Naturally, I hit up against the same wall: as far as I could was less than five minutes, and then I'd hit what I now know is an exercise-induced asthma attack and would be able to go no further. In the end I said fuck the gym teachers and walked the goddamn mile.

Did these so-called teachers ever think to show the weaker runners how to interval-train? How to use proper form so that you're using your whole body to propel yourself forward, not just your legs? How to prevent injury? Of course not. It was just, "Get the lead out!" and other such wonderfully creative tools of humiliation. Which at that point was as good as dooming my grade, because I responded to humiliation with anger and spite and refusal to do anything, not with trying harder.

A few months ago, all I had to do was go to coolrunning.com and get the "couch-to-5k" running plan. At first running a minute at a time was difficult.

Today I ran my mile at last. And then some. Fuck you, public school gym class.

Comments

One of us!

[rosiewoodboat.livejournal.com]

"rode a bike to and from, in the rain..."

Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us!

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

I could have written this post!

I'm so glad the coolrunning thing is working for you; it's amazingly great, isn't it?

And running is fun, yay!

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! This is huge!

I'd never liked running and only ever ran in school when we had those fitness tests. Basically, I'd run until I was wheezing and stopped long before my legs were ever tired. My throat was burning, my sides aching, but never knew what to do about it.

I don't think I'll ever be a "runner". I don't get that endorphin rush, I'll never be fast, and I will always have to fight the all-too-probable possibility of over-heating, but I've found peace with running for my health. It does get easier, my friend. And congratulations for making it across by far the worst hurdle: from 0-1 mile!

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Wow. You know, I loved running as a kid--I was fast, but it wasn't the competition that I liked, it was just sprinting and enjoying the speed.

But I got older, and it wasn't as easy. I blamed several things--puberty for redistributing weight, asthma getting worse, not being consistent with exercise, ankles twisting too easily--but I just couldn't run for more than a few seconds, with the results you mentioned being the price I'd pay.

I had been good at it, but no one ever showed me how to do it properly...probably because I was good at it. Now I'm wondering if I had the right approach, I could run again and build up my cardio endurance. Thank you for making me realize I'm probably not entirely broken--very inspirational, this.

So...how is it you went about it? Gradual increments?

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

the stitch in my side, my tongue swelling, the taste of iron in my mouth...an exercise-induced asthma attack

That's what that is? Huh. So does that mean I have asthma of some kind? Or had it as a child?

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Go you!

I was a total gym spaz in school, too. And I still suck at anything that requires any type of hand-eye coordination, or any type of "get the ball/puck/birdie/cue ball to go to a specific place" type of activity. And, like you, I learned how to exercise by dint of RTFM-ing, researching, and sheer force of will.

As to why gym teachers don't teach in ways that actually reach all the students, as opposed to the ones that learn easily - well, the gym teachers (in all probability) were good at gym when THEY were students, and so they teach the way that their teachers taught, and that worked for them.

It's similar to the way many academic teacher teach - they teach to the kids who have brains that learn the way they do. There have been various progressive learning theories & systemic change initiatives that have encouraged teachers to teach in other ways - but it's an uphill battle. Hell, I go to a ton of education conferences, that make the point, over & over, that the was students learn best is through hands-on, inquiry based activities. And how to the conference attendees learn this? By reading monographs, or by listening lectures where the speaker drones on, and presents PowerPoints, telling us, oh so didactically, that the very methods she's using Don't Work.

The kids who really need to be actively engaged are going to be shortchanged in many of their academic classes. I wasn't, and I reckon you (and most of your flist) wasn't either. Cuz we're real comfortable with language and abstract ideas. OTOH, in gym class, where things are "do 'em, don't think about 'em" we got shafted, because that's not the way we learn.

Ideally all classes would be flexible enough to provide support to all kinds of learners. I think that is an achievable goal (albeit one made unnecessarily difficult by crap like No Child Left Behind), which is why I work in education research. [/soapbox]

Go you!

[poly-fi.livejournal.com]

I have had a nearly identical relationship with running and jogging. A personal trainer friend did the intervals with me and brought me out of some of my cardio misery.

I think of it as 'exercise Darwinism' when people with certain natural skills presume that it's because of what they do that they are fit or whatever. My naturally thin brother is great one for telling me that eating pounds of spagetti is good for dieting. I think that's where a lot of stupid advice in the world comes from. I'm naturally sociable, but I don't go telling people with genuine social anxiety that they just need to power through and it will all be okay.

Anyways, you're a badass! :D

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Oops. Missed the Coolrunning link.
Thanks for that. I may try it myself.

[ivy]

That's so fantastic and inspiring. Go you!

[satyrgrl.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm terribly impressed. I could never ever run as a kid. It was both awkward and painful. Then I started having asthma attacks and it was all over. It is inspirational to see you going from a walking-the-mile, wheezing type like me to someone who can run for 20 minutes straight. Not so inspirational that I'm going to try it, but inspirational enough to make me think I could.

[wabi.livejournal.com]

I love the fact that I am not the only person in the world who learns to exercise by doing research. It fits with my whole "lose weight by doing math" system. :-)

I think I might try that coolrunning program. I have also always hated running. I can do other cardio stuff for a pretty long time (I almost always do at least an hour on the eliptical...), but running always kills me. Sometimes, though, it would be nice to exercise outside...

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Some info. (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aaaai.org%2Fpatients%2Fpublicedmat%2Ftips%2Fexerciseinducedasthma.stm&ei=pwznRuOuBYyQevi5yEI&usg=AFQjCNEtxKLREbbRmBByYuOjx24GiF23Og&sig2=4-9eE3obJehnHNd83EogPg)

I first heard the term "exercise-induced asthma" from amber_phoenix, actually. I was interested to read in this link that it often has to do with taking cold air deep into the lungs during exercise, as running out in the cold at school was often what did it to me.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

The exercising outside thing was one thing that got me into it - also, exercising on vacation or otherwise away from home.

Also, running burns many more calories, depending on your speed. So it's more economical time-wise. I can't imagine being on the damn elliptical for an hour!

Re: One of us!

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha!

Well, I figured if I was going to try it out (I live a twenty-five minute walk from the gym I used to live a 7 minute walk from), I might as well do it on a terrible day and see if I can handle it.

[amber-phoenix.livejournal.com]

woo hoo!
i'll be curious to learn if you find being able to conquer this leads you to look at things a bit differently. i credit going to cooking school with getting me started running and both of them with my continuing to learn that there are many things i can do which i feared or avoided before.

[wabi.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's not too bad...I usually either listen to music and read or watch stuff on a little digital video player I have...I think some people can't do that because the rocking motion combined with the reading/watching makes them motion sick, but I've never had problems. I usually get bored around the 20-minute mark, but if I push through that I can go for an hour or longer.

Of course, being outside would be nicer...though at the gym I get the fun of playing "What Will Happen Today in the Shower?"

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. Putting that together for myself made a lot of things suck less! I remember trying to explain these feelings to people and just getting blank stares.

dietrich, go you! I understand this post so very much and I'm delighted that you got to where you are. The first mile is the sweetest.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

After reading this post and the resulting thread, I can see that my experiences with sadistic (and clueless) gym teachers were not unique. Go you for proving them all wrong. You are the heroine of Our Cause and possibly a potential Patron Saint of Gym Class.

Ok, I'm effusing a bit over the top. But only a little.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Interesting. You know, it just might. I don't know if it will do anything for overcoming my current crushing fear of having a child, but it might help with the decisions I'm about to be making about my career.

At the very least, I think I'm slowly but surely becoming better at quickly identifying what I don't want. Positivizing that seems to be the next step.

Post coming on such things, I think...

[danceboy.livejournal.com]

Yes. It was 14 years from my last gym class until the first time I ever went for a run voluntarily. It was 10 years from my last gym class until the the first time I went to a dance class.

Not that I'm bitter or anything...

But yeah, gym class retarded my physical development for about two decades. I'm currently trying to figure out how to prevent that from happening to schr0dinger. My best theory so far is just to be visibly doing physical stuff and enjoying it, but ideas are welcome.