A sad truth is revealed

I've mentioned before that recently I've been trying to be more consistent about jogging after work. Before I got pregnant with Jake, I jogged four miles a day, at least four days a week. Now, with all the complications of having kids in two schools and additional commitments that come just from having a third child, I seem to be averaging about two miles a day, two days a week. It's frustrating.

However, a couple of months ago I decided to see if I could just skip over the whole "working up to four miles" thing and go straight from two to four. The answer is, "Yes, I can do it. And I will regret it."

OH, THE PAIN. Muscle soreness that made me want to stay in one position (preferably lying down), never to move again. It receded after a couple of days, though, and I tried it a few more times.

Here's the thing: I have a stopwatch function on my iPod. So I decided to time myself as I jogged, because I knew it was MUCH slower than I used to jog. I used to do four miles in about 53 minutes ... just barely faster than most people walk the same distance, I know, but it kept my heart rate elevated and -- more importantly -- it was manageable and didn't make me want to shoot myself in the head halfway through.

The path I was running on this particular day took me about 4.5 miles, but STILL:



Mucho slowero, as they'd say in Spanish. An hour and 15 minutes ... I actually had some walkers PASS me while I was jogging.

So a couple of days later, I went back to the same trail and did the exact same distance -- but I WALKED it. And here are the results:


All I have to say is, thank God that I have a sense of humor.