He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. —Psalm 113:9

October 4, 2006

Two Things That I've Done

I've started jogging. Shut up, I have too! Inspired by Manoah, I was going to dig my bicycle out of the garage and start riding it on the weekends, now that the temperature has (or had, at any rate) dipped to a comfortable level. But then on Saturday morning I learned that a bicycle that's been sitting neglected for over a year + no tire pump = not going very far. So, all dressed down to get some exercise and feeling equally inspired by Pamie and her recent marathon run*, I set out to jog.

Well, to walk. At first. But with the goal of eventually jogging at some point totally in mind. Not really ever having been a runner, or a jogger (I've jogged before, but only short distances and only to jack my heart-rate up during my walks), I'm possessed of enough common sense to know that you have to work up to these things. So I started out slow. The street on which I live joins up with the street behind in a big curve, to make a convenient track-like circle, one lap of which is almost exactly one-third of a mile. So I walked slowly for a lap to warm up. Then I picked up some weights and sped up to power-walk the second lap, because power-walking is what I know. On the third lap, I chucked the weights and jogged for a hundred steps. Then I walked the next hundred, then jogged another hundred, and so on for an entire lap. I didn't die. I thought for a minute that I might be about to, but I got past it, and walked a fourth and final cool-down lap, and then got up and did the whole thing over again on Sunday. And it was all right.

I know I'll never run a marathon, or probably even a 5K, because I know I'll never be dedicated enough to get up at the butt crack of dawn to put my running shoes on and go train. So I considered letting that be the end of it. But then last night when I got home from work, Matt was online, and the evening had cooled off, and I figured as long as I had time to kill I might as well go do it again. And as I walked my last lap I figured that if I keep doing this on the weekends, and then squeeze it in one night a week, at least as long as it's not freeze-your-extremities-off cold outside, I'll probably be able to stay in shape through the holidays. Maybe get into better shape, even. So I guess that makes me a jogger now. Or it will, after I work up to jogging more than one-third of one-third of a mile.

I've signed up for NaNoWriMo. I just did it about an hour ago. I had no idea that there were, like, local groups and meet-ups and stuff. A Tulsa meet-up and kick-off party is being planned for the last Saturday of the month, but that weekend is the anniversary of my first date with Matt, and he's still enough of a romantic to want to keep celebrating it, so I suspect that I have a date that night. Unless he decides he'd rather celebrate it on Sunday, which is the actual anniversary anyway. But at any rate, I now have some measure of external accountability to produce writing. Whether it will make a difference remains to be seen, but at least it's there.

* Running isn't the only thing Pamie has inspired me to do lately. Out of curiosity, I picked up her first novel, Why Girls Are Weird, to read on the cruise. Which I did. And it was good. There were parts of the book that made me want to be a writer. It was good timing, seeing as how I had already promised myself that I would start writing again when I got home; but reading this book made me actually look forward to getting to write again. I should probably write to her to tell her so, but I always feel oogy when I try to write fan letters and always end up trashing them before they get sent. I suppose I should just view her as a fellow blogger who wrote a story that deserves some feedback, which she is, but she's also more than that: she's a blogger who made good, and that makes her something of a hero, and that makes her a wee bit intimidating, and so I'll settle for telling you guys that you should totally go read her books, and I'll read her second one just as soon as I can get to the store and pick up a copy. Hopefully the second one will keep the inspiration going.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kudos on keeping in shape!

I did NaNo last year, and I'm signed up for this one, too. I knew diddly-squat about writing a novel last year, and it showed. I read about four books about writing, and I should do nominally better this year. I figure I should improve incrementally each year; by 2050, I may have something readble. Assuming I'm still alive, that is.

Anonymous said...

*readable

See, I get better each time I try.

Jean Bauhaus said...

Dwight -- Bwah! But seriously, with all the food coming at me this time of year if I don't exercise my ass definitely will become the size of a hay bale. I don't want hay bale ass.

Jean Bauhaus said...

Bojo - Writing novels is one of those things you learn best by doing (and also by reading lots of other novels, which I know you've got covered), so good for you! And good luck with your NaNo project.

Anonymous said...

Good for you on the exercising! It'll keep you from having "honeymooners heiney". That happens when all you do is get out of bed, eat, get back in bed, get out of bed, eat, lather, rinse, repeat.

*snicker*
Manoah

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