An update about running.

Yesterday, I went out to buy a new pair of running shoes. It was a necessary investment; my knees have been hurting post-run all week, a tried-and-true sign that the supports/shock absorbers in my shoes had given up the ghost.On the recommendation of a friend of mine, I headed to Foot RX in South Asheville to pick out a new pair. They had me run on a treadmill for about a minute so they could film my gait. After that, they went over the video in slow-motion and determined that I needed shoes with extra support because I run funny (their explanation was more complicated than that, though). I tried on several pairs and wound up picking out a pair of Asics.

I just got in from my inaugural run in them, and I am quite pleased with how well they're working out for me.

I am less pleased, however, with the fact that I should probably stop purchasing my exercise shoes from the children's department at Dick's Sporting Goods. A pity, because they cost about half as much as adult shoes. On the other hand, though, I'm not getting any younger and I'd rather spend extra money on good shoes now than have to deal with blowing out my knees and needing replacements at 40.

As the great philosopher Mick Jagger said, "What a drag it is getting older."

Overall, though, I'm happy with the running progress I have made. I started running again shortly after I announced my blog hiatus because my stress levels were starting to render me non-functional, and I figured my sanity was worth sacrificing thirty to sixty minutes a day to exercising. I wound up doing a modified version of the Couch to 5k program. Rather than only running three days a week, I did six (three days on, one day off, three days on, etc.), repeating each workout two times until I hit the "run 20 minutes" mark at the end of week five. Since then, I've been adding two minutes to my run every couple of days.

My original goal was to reach an hour's worth of running by last week; unfortunately, my schedule got delayed by two weeks thanks to finals (when I seriously didn't have the time to go running) and that godawful illness I had. I'm now back on track to finish by the New Year, and I'm pretty excited about that. I haven't been able to run five-plus miles in one go since I was in high school!

The only downside to this whole fitness endeavor is that I have (of course) lost weight. Okay, losing weight isn't really the downside. All things considered, I probably needed to. The downside is everybody and their mother thinking that my exercise schedule's existence entitles them to make unsolicited comments about my body and how much better I look now. I get that they're trying to be nice and supportive and whatever, but I still find that kind of thing really rude and disrespectful, particularly since I said I was exercising again because I like it. Assuming that my running routine is based around weight loss and talking about how great (read: skinnier) I look is presumptuous and kind of insulting (like, hey, it's good to know you thought I was a giant fatass last month). It's pretty frustrating, and I've added it to my list of "Near-Daily Reminders of Why Feminism is Still Necessary."