Record Slow Start

I got back from my run a few minutes ago. My ankle hurts a little, my shin hurts a little, my knee hurts a little. And I'm still doing the Couch to 5k Week 1 workout. This puts me square in the middle of my third week of week 1, and I decided that my standard to promote myself to the next week would be finishing two out of three runs without weird joint pain. Wow. I wonder if anyone else has done the first week this many times.

The crazy part is that this is actually progress. I had a run last week that didn't hurt. Tonight's hurt a lot less than it could. All of them have hurt less than the ones that prompted me to see my doctor back in 2008, or any of the ones that made me decide to stop running the last times I decided to pick it up again. This also puts me in the third week of running regularly. Even if it's the sort-of running workout that is week 1 of the Couch to 5k. (Look it up. It's kind of pathetic, if you're coming from my perspective.)

So I'm feeling pretty good about this, strange though that may seem. I don't think I've had a running stint this long since High School. What hurts is changing, and getting less painful. I was optimistic last week that this would be my last week of week 1. It won't, but I think there will be a week 2. Which is better than I've done in the past.

I like having goals. So I've chosen an event. I'm doing the Resolution Run on New Year's Day 2012, ready or not. If I'm not ready, I'll just do whatever workout I'm scheduled to do that day. I've always thought New Year's Resolutions were a stupid way to start new things. But as a goal, or at least a progress marker, for the new thing I've already started, maybe it's a little better. And crazy people will jump in the lake at the end, so it should be fun.