Could I... Could I really be getting there?

"There" being not all that far in "that" direction, really. But still. I feel like there is momentum. Yesterday I took off in the morning and got four miles in, with a lot of walking breaks, but still. Today I jogged a full two miles with no walking. Once I took my first walking break, my legs reminded me I hadn't tried to run six miles in two days in over a year, and I gave up and stopped the workout to walk home. It was a bit late though. I had mucked up my precious workout time. Now Nike Plus still thinks I'm a slacker that keeps getting slower.

However! My second mile today was only a second slower than my first. I knew going in that I wouldn't be able to run hard. It was 88 degrees and I had taken a real shot with those four miles yesterday. I decided to try a comfortable pace that didn't rip my lungs out. Of course, my calves immediately began to feel like 30lb dumbbells tied to my legs, and I have no idea how much of that is mental. I did it though, two miles in just over twenty minutes, which is not too shabby for this guy.

Progress. It's a crazy thing. I have also inched (and "inched" is most certainly the most apposite term here) towards where I want to be: running for joy as well as fitness. I don't run in silence; I typically listen to podcasts. It is a time however where my mind is not being plagued by all the crap it usually is. The Oatmeal describes much longer runs here but I am slowly learning exactly what it's like to be a runner, or at least to be in love with it. Here's hoping I can keep going.

I run so I can consume things like this.

The concept was solid(ly awesome) but the execution was... weird.

I ate chocolate.

Hello, Internet.

I ate chocolate yesterday. A big chunk of hazelnut flavoured chocolate. Dear me, it was good.

Now, I had (up to that point) eaten a decent lunch. And I'd just been on a run! A rather terrible one, though. I jogged a solid first mile (just over nine minutes) but the walking breaks ruled after that. I wasn't terribly surprised. It was my first time running two days in a row in quite some time so I wasn't expecting much and I didn't want to push. That's an easy way to get injured.

And I had chocolate. Damn it. Don't get me wrong; I'll never give up on chocolate. Saner amounts would help though.

For the rest of the day, I did reasonably well. I had a very light dinner and there was some walking involved. The walking brought to my local gaming store, where I engaged in highly nerdy activities and discovered that a friend was also back to running. He seems to be at a similar level to myself (if a little further along) and it's nice to talk to someone who enjoys running but isn't yet at the "I ran eight miles today, I don't know what was wrong with me. I must be tired" phase.

Not sure if I'll ever get there, but that's the long (read: LONG) term goal. Right now I'd settle for comfortable jogging. We're meeting friends for ice cream on Sunday. Something to work towards!

Two miles run without a walking break, I'm coming for you.

First Run (for the blog)

I survived.

I actually did a bit more than that. In the heyday of my running, known colloquially as late spring to early summer 2012, I was actually running/jogging/going slowly/runjogging three or four miles without walking breaks regularly. Though I'd given running a shot around the same time every year for a while previously, this was the best I had ever done. I got there mostly by shuffling at a VERY slow pace. When I started again last week, I found myself running faster but taking walking breaks more often, and actually coming in at a faster pace. Today, that broke a little.

I did manage to go the first two miles without a walk break, which was great. But I didn't have much left in the tank after that. I had actually deliberately had a substantial lunch in preparation for the run because I had low energy all morning. I'm happy enough though.

First time recorded on this blog....

2.58 miles in 27 minutes and 33 seconds.

My first mile took 9 minutes, which I was a little surprised by because I got an 8 minute 20 seconds (or so) mile in last week even with a bit of a walk. It's possibly my running app on the phone went a bit wonky but I don't think so. I started nice and strong today but wilted very quickly and my second mile was much slower than my first. The first half of my first mile was far and away the fastest I ran. I have never had a run where my first mile wasn't my fastest. Consider changing that one of my medium term goals.

Speaking of goals, I have a nice set of goals ahead of me. I'm good at the goal setting part, just not so good at the doing the work part.

Short-term: Get stronger with the running and eliminate walking breaks. Faster times would be nice but I just want to develop a base here.

Medium-term: Finish a 5k in less than thirty minutes. I have never done this.

Long-term: Regularly run for longer than 5k, work up pace until 5 miles in 45 minutes is a solid run.

Now, I know I could have longer term goals than that but I think this is a nice set to go with. And I ran today, so that's good. I finished my first two miles today in less than twenty minutes, so we're getting there.

And I haven't had chocolate today either. Rock on.

I want to become a better human being by becoming less well rounded. In the literal sense.

Hello. This is my first blog post.

Well, it's not really. I've written many blog posts. This is my first post on this blog. And this blog isn't going to have posts like the ones I've written for other blogs. I won't talk about sci-fi movies or video games or genre fiction on this blog. I'm here to talk about improving my fitness through running and cycling.

There may be frequent posts on how much I hate exercise, at least to start with.

I called this blog Chocolate is a Food Group because that kind of sums up my attitude to my body and how I've been treating it all these years. Now, that was all well and good in my 20s when a month or two of behaving myself got everything back into reasonable trim, but that simple solution is no longer available. And, to be honest, it never really worked. I was never skinny and very rarely in any kind of decent shape. Just a decent enough shape to get away with it.

When I was single and carefree that's all I needed. Now that I'm married, in a relationship with someone that sees past my physical imperfections and my determination to complain about my weight while consuming yet more chocolate (or pizza, or fried food, or... you're getting the idea, I'm sure) it's time to do more. We'll be a family soon, knock on wood, and I need to start working on my health.

Also... you know. Vanity.

So, what to do? I love a variety of sports but I am shocking at them. Shocking. You have no idea. You think you do, but you don't. So, I'm not really able to enjoy team games for the most part. The two types of exercise I've had most success with have been running and cycling. The cycling came about after a running injury, actually. Now, I've never been a strong runner, but I have gotten some momentum going now and then.

Now and then. I always quit. Always. Well, not so much quit as fade away. That's what this blog is about. It was inspired by a post at the Guardian Running Blog. The idea, simply enough, is to write about my experiences getting fitter. You know, a way of shaming myself.

So, this will be a personal blog and completely unrepentant in that respect. I do promise to avoid whining as much as I can and Lord knows I have close to no interest in posting regular times. That wouldn't do any of us much good. But there'll be posts about how good a run or bad a run I had, how I'm doing... I've always had trouble running and this is my big effort to break through the barrier and get to a point where a 5k is a regular run I can actually complete in under half an hour and I forget what "walking breaks" are. Well, for the most part.

The cycling will come a little later. We're moving soon but I'm going to get back in the saddle (hey, what other way should I put it?) at the end of the summer throughout the autumn.

If you stumble across this blog while out travelling the web, the first thing I want to do is apologize that this isn't a really cool foodie site about chocolate. Secondly though, it is my hope that I will actually get my act together here and become a fitter person and that might actually help to motivate others. Or at the very least continue to motivate me.

Let's go!