Yesterday I was scheduled to run 10 miles. I managed to do 9.4 before I had to jump off the treadmill because I was feeling pretty wiped out and my left hip was killing me. As I mentioned in my post <strike>yesterday</strike> 10 minutes ago (when I realized that I apparently didn’t hit the oh-so-important publish button last night), I bought a foam roller last night to try to get rid of the hip pain. Besides not hitting my 10 mile goal, the other disappointment yesterday was my speed. I did the first 5 miles in 50 minutes. If I would have finished the second 5 miles I would have likely finished in 60. Those are ugly ugly splits. They don’t bode well for me running a PR at this upcoming half marathon.
As I was driving home this evening though I made a realization, one that I need to remind myself of much more frequently: I should be proud for the running at any speed for any length of time. Some days I won’t be able to run fast or far, but at least I’m running. But the reason I had this thought was even funnier, thank you random high school memory.
In high school gym class (which I took during my second semester of 9th grade when I was 15 — or nearly 12 years ago), the most dreaded day of the semester was the 20 minute run. The rules were pretty simple: you had to keep running for 20 minutes. If you didn’t, your grade suffered. As an over achiever in high school, there was no way I was going to let gym class get in the way of my GPA….however, I seriously feared that even though gym class shouldn’t get in the way, my lazy, semi-fat body might.
I think I lost significant amounts of sleep leading up to this dreaded day in gym class.
The more I think about the whole event, the more I realize how dumb it was. Now, I’m not saying physical education isn’t important because I think it’s one of the more important classes in school (although I wish more emphasis was placed on taking care of your body by finding an exercise you love instead of making sure you have a certain skill). At a basic level, long term longevity depends a whole lot more on your ability to care for your body then it does your ability to interpret a Shakespeare play. But I digress. The point of all of this was that I think the dumb part of the 20 minute run was there was no build up to the 20 minute run. There was no 5 minute run one week, 10 minute the next, etc. They didn’t build up our endurance. At least I don’t remember them doing that. Instead they just said on [date] we are running 20 minutes. If you can’t do it, you won’t get an A.
I sincerely believe that this 20 minute run was the reason I avoided running until I was nearly 23. It took me 8 years to put this horrible experience behind me and figure out that I did like running. But you know what I had to do to get to learn to run at 23? Run 2 minutes, walk 1, repeat for 30 minutes (i.e., Couch to 5k). And then incrementally increase the running time and decrease the walking time. But what I didn’t do was just get out and run 20 minutes. And maybe I could have, but I would have been miserable and I probably would have given up long before I completed 3 half marathons, multiple other races, and three triathlons. Maybe if we had done this in high school I would have learned then that I could run and I might not be miserable the whole time I was doing it?
The thing is, I did the 20 minute run in high school and I earned my A. I didn’t walk (although I’m fairly certain that I likely could have walked at a decent pace faster than I ran). I just wish it would have been different and I would have learned to love running so much younger.
Despite that experience, I need to remember that even when the speed or the distance isn’t there, the running is and will always be. I may not be the fastest, but being fastest doesn’t make you the healthiest. My blood pressure is amazing because of running. My weight is in a healthy range (although I definitely could use a few…or 20…vanity pounds). And I have developed a very healthy work out habit. But it was certainly no thanks to high school gym class.
I agree with you. couch25k should be taught in high school. I also dreaded running way back when. Found couch 25k when I was 49, and now I’m doing triathlons, running 3+ miles at a time (slowly), and planning for a half marathon in the Spring.
Who knew running could be so much fun!
Glad to have found your blog.
We had that same thing in PE in highschool. The first day of gym for the year we had to run 3/4 mile. Then the 2nd gym class we had to do 1.5 miles. I just can’t even believe that now. Being overweight and the last to finish never won me any favors from classmates (who had to wait for me). I absolutely hated it. This was why I never ever ran again until I started the C25K in April of 2008 20+ years later. I thought I hated it and it was too hard. All I had to do was learn to train right.
PE teachers weren’t always the best.