Week 8: couch to holy-crap-it's-working

Maybe the fall is good for something afterall, because running the way I've been running in the heat would be suicide.

It's week 8 in the couch to 5k running program, where the collective "we" run non-stop for 20+ minutes.

Yesterday the sweat barely had time to form before the cool, oncoming autumn air whisked it away. A few nights last week were nice too, now that the dusk temperature is dipping into the 50s and 40s.

Fall is sad, because it means goodbye summer, but I'm just as excited as Andrea to be running some real distance without suffering catotonic coronary despair on the side of some suburban sidewalk.

Since we're running non-stop now, I left the iPod and the podcast at home and ran naked. Without the iPod, my right arm didn't quite know what to do. I don't blame it, because five minutes in and I was counting my exhales for lack of something better to do. It was a good mindfulness practice, though, and I got to 700 before wheezing.

Now, when I see runners jogging down the sidewalk, I feel like I'm part of some mutant group that no one else understands.

RUNNER: "Kill me now."

ME, DRIVING PAST: "Keep it up, buddy."

DOG, ALONE, WATCHING IN THE WINDOW: "Suckers."

And so it goes.

My metabolism has kicked into overdrive lately because, along with the running, I've reignited my usual weights-and-sit-ups workout routine, meaning my bloodsugar rarely rises above 150. I can feel calories burn while I sit on my duff at work, and that's the whole idea: to let your metabolism do the hard work.

Well, that's silly. My metabolism can thank me, because its lazy ass doesn't stretch and run and hope for a quick death.

But it's how I lost 15 pounds after graduation. I've gained five of that back in the four years since school, but it's an easy combination: workout + something something = in-shape Dave.

A simple equation in a not-so-simple world.