And it (finally) Begins!

So, today I joined with the group from Fleet Feet in Syracuse and their New Balance Beginner Runner's Training Program.  Its basically a 10-week course ending in a 5-K Run.  My goal run is called the Jingle Bell Run.  Isn't that the cutest?  A  really cute name for something I'm seeing, at the moment, as something akin to a horror movie. Or having major surgery with out so much an aspirin. Or a meal full of nothing but split pea soup.  But, as usual, I digress.

My friend, Sandra joined me in place of Robert, who went to Queens, NY for a month.  Poor Sandra.  They literally put her in Rob's place... and I guess they thought Pitman was in better shape than Pitman thinks he is.  They tried to kill my friend.  But we'll have that fixed for next week.  The run it self wasn't so bad.  Walk 5 minutes to warm up, run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes, lather, rinse repeat 8 times.  The first minute lasted about a year and a half.  The second minute run was only about 9 months long.  And it just got better from there!!  I have a theory about this.  The first is that the walk was much slower than my normal walking speed, so that my hear rate never really felt raised until the run.  So, I'm hoping I'm doing this right, and plan on doing the same thing for my homework assignments this week.  I hope its not cheating....  My knees do feel pretty sore at the moment...

The most embarrassing part of the morning was during the core exercise and stretching.  I love stretching.  It kinda hurts but its a revealing pain... like massage. Reality smacked me upside the head with a cast iron frying pan when the stupid jock said "Crunches".  I didn't realize he was swearing at me.

So, I lay on my back, mend my knees like he did.  He informs us all to take our fingertips and touch them to our knees.  He goes on to say that we need to bend at the waist and move our hands so that the heel of our hand are touching our knees.  Cool.  Nice, simple instructions from Jock Boy.  Only one problem......  I take my fingers....  reach for my knees, reeaacchh for my knees, REEAAACCHHHHH!!!!  Crap.  I guess while I was running I lost my freakin' knees.  First goal in my search for fitness is to find my freakin' knees...... After all, I can feel the suckers when I start to walk around the house, they just disappear, leaving my finger tips grasping at air, when its crunch time!!  Things that make you go "Hmmm".