The buddy system

Tis the holiday season and time to get together and celebrate some good cheer with old friends. And so last week I found myself reconnecting with a girl I grew up with. We'd been through the Girl Guides system, softball teams, and swimming lessons together ... lost touch through university but found out years later we belonged to the same gym. And so we'd end up having baked brie and beer on occasion. Last week was one such occasion. Of course, we talked about the gym: how she goes, even after she had knee surgery a few months ago, while I talk about how I've been avoiding it because in truth, I've turned pretty lazy about exercising (I keep blaming my bad shoulders but guess what I have a doctor's appointment next week to finally get it seriously checked out.) My friend and I came to a buddy system agreement where we will meet each other at the gym every Monday so that we can each get a good start to the week (though we started on Thursday this week because of previous engagements). She convinced me to join her because she's in the early stages of learning to run. She's at a 15-minute walk/run level right now. I thought to myself, I should be able to handle that. Just ease back in...

And so I showed up today and we found two treadmills together. Started with walking, then eased into a jog. It was about 3 min run, then 1 min walk pace. By around the 10th minute, I was feeling pretty good about myself: unexpectedly, my breathing was not particularly labored, nor were my running mechanics totally off kilter. I was not in as rough shape as I thought. I decided to push it and run harder for the last five minutes. It was hard to maintain the 6 mph pace, but I did it. I am pretty sure I will actually feel it in my legs tomorrow. But it was fun and I might just do this again tomorrow.

And this is how we build towards the Around the Bay 30K race. Peer pressure might just get me to sign up (like everyone is doing it! Yumke, Fleetfooted, Cousin...!!!) but let's see how I handle a little more distance in the next week or two before I really commit. I'm pretty good at talking a big game sometimes and then "forgetting" about it, when it comes to these races and stuff.

Oh ya, speaking of buddies: Yumke has devilishly decided to revive the 2006 Chicago team of himself, me and Fleetfooted to run another race together and has generously decided to pay for our choice of Toronto spring races next year. Ah, the gift of running.