Slow and Steady

I've recently started an attempt at jogging.

I've always wanted to be a jogger.  When I used to work out at the gym, I was concentrating more on weights than cardio because more muscle = more calories burning.  Which was fine and good...until the gym burned down.

Prior to the gym, I was a lazy bum.  Prior to being a lazy bum, I rode my bike.  A lot.  All over the old hometown.  I LOVED biking.  I still have the bike I babysat all summer in junior high to pay for.  I LOVE my bike.  However, since becoming a lazy bum, biking has become more difficult.
Nevermind that half the town bikes.  Nevermind that I live on a half-built street where not many people would see me.
I'm heinously self conscious about others seeing me huff and puff and grunt and cuss and eventually fall over in defeat.  It's why I joined another gym after the old one burnt down, went in once, and then never again.  Too many people could see me doing the huff to defeat routine.  Or even just the huff puff grunt.
I don't know why I get so self conscious--everyone else there is sweating and pretending to love it.  And I'm sure some of them have been where I am, but haven't given up.  But that doesn't matter, because in my mind, every single person in the gym isn't working out--they're all staring at me, waiting for me to fall over panting, so they can feel superior and super fit.  Jerks.

So getting a treadmill in August was wonderful.  I started using the iFit feature to download different walking plans to get me moving.
And then I stopped using it while Annie was here.  I blame it on her, but I'm sure it was just me being a lazy bum again.

Then, lo and behold, I happened to stumble upon a link, through a link, and a couple links before that that had nothing to do with fitness at all, that said Couch to 3K running program.  It's for lazy bums!
I can run and huff and puff and cuss and grunt and cuss and turn bright tomato-red and drip sweat with no one watching!
I've only just finished week 2.  It's a 9-week program.  Week 2 took 2 weeks to complete.  Some days I just can't complete the plan because I have hideous, crippling shin splints.
But...I plan to complete the program.  Sometime before 2014, at this rate.  But I will finish it!
And, proudly, happily, I can say my knees don't hurt at all!  I figured that since they've always been an issue, they would continue the proud tradition and make this program impossible for me.  But thanks to the fantastic treadmill's ability to provide cushion to my steps, my knees are ok.
It's just those damn shin splints.

Luckily, I know a couple runners, one of whom gave me some tips for stretching my shins--which seems to work.  Yesterday I completed the third of 3 week 2 workouts with minimal pain.
Now I just need to stretch every few minutes so my muscles don't attempt a return to their "but we were lazy and it was fun!" norm.

And find some decent running shoes.  Which means shopping.  In a shoe store.  Which, actually, doesn't suck, because trying on shoes doesn't involve stripping down like clothes shopping demands.  Maybe, just maybe, I can find a purple pair.  I'm sure purple shoes would let me run better/faster/less sweatier.