happy belated birthday to jogging josh

i started jogging around the lake at james j. braddock park a little over a year ago. i don't even remember the exact day, but i know it was sometime over the memorial day weekend. developing a jogging habit was something i thought about a lot. but i was just too fuckin lazy. i'm still too fuckin lazy... but now at least i'm a lazy dude who jogs.

i used to come home from work and go straight to the tv. and that was it. that'd be my night. if it wasn't tv at home, it was out drinking somewhere. i like drinking. i did it a lot... still do actually... though jogging for a year has naturally scaled back some of the drinking. still, i'm no sober saint.

the first time i tried jogging, i couldn't even make it half way around the lake. i walked the rest and went home.

next day i did one lap and it sucked. i was miserable, out of breath, in pain.... just all around shitty.

next day i ran a lap and it sucked a little less.

and then a week later i ran 3 laps. i never had a 2 lap regimen. just went from 1 lap to 3laps. it felt right. and things were starting to click. i was starting to develop a better jogging form and finding myself in less pain.

then one day i ran with liz. and she pushed me to do 4. that was awesome. i was so set on sticking to 3 laps. 4 laps wasn't in my head at all. i was just satisfied to go from lazy couch potato to 3 lap jogger, that 4 laps just didn't exist to me. but on that day, in a moment's notice, at the end of the 3rd lap, liz said, 'c'mon, let's do one more.' and we did.

i stuck to 4 laps for a most of the year. it was only about 2 months ago that i pushed it up to 5 laps, which is what i'm currently running every time i hit the lake now. many days i run at the gym at my job. they have treadmills which are ok, but i prefer running outdoors.

there was a week i spent in buffalo, ny to visit my dad's family. it was about 2 months into my jogging year. i had just made the 4 lap leap. and i was determined not to let a vacation deter me from my new jogging habit. i woke up early every day and ran for 40 minutes around my uncle's neighborhood. it was a very cool week in my jogging year. i don't know the distance i ran exactly, but i got to explore a town i knew nothing about every day while jogging. and when i was done, i'd go back to my uncle's and jump in a pool. to this day, it's one of the biggest thrills of my life... to put my feet to the pavement in the summer sun for 40 minutes with the glory of a cannonball jump into a swimming pool at the end.

over the year, i've ran at least 3 days out of every week. ideally, i'd like to run 5 days out of the week, and most weeks i do that. but sometimes i slack, but no matter what, i always find a way to make time for 3 times out of the week.

it's also a hell of a reliever. any shitty day i find myself in a funk, a good jog around the lake usually gets the funk out of me. at the least, it helps me end the day more at ease.

i don't know where this whole jogging thing will go. i enjoy it a whole lot and i've felt immensely better all around since i've started. i'm not the fastest jogger or the jogger who goes the longest distance... but jogging's a lot like life in general. you gotta find your pace and what you can do and what you feel good about. and right now, i feel pretty damn good!

so happy birthday jogging josh. cya next year.