Would love to go running, it's free and great for burning calories. Is it just me who sounds like a walrus with a cold after a couple of minutes? I gym three times a week and am reasonably fit and active. I just can't get the hang of it. 
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To ask if you can run?
66 replies
mrshyde27 · 26/01/2016 20:59
OP posts:
ZebraOwl ·
28/01/2016 04:27
No, I can't 
My severe (type 2 brittle, with bonus!SAFS just to make taking the Guides camping extra exciting...) asthma is MASSIVELY triggered by exercise. And the muscles that are meant to support my breathing are lazy slackers who do not do their job. (Though on reflection, probably better they're atonic - not atomic, thank you autocorrect - than in spasm...) My lungs also have Views about acceptable working conditions, including a surprisingly limited temperature range & while they've basically adapted to Inner-London air quality to the point clean air freaks them out (I am a special Zebra) they can't cope with being asked to go leaping about in it. I have to be careful joining in games with the Brownies, even, which is a rather sad state of affairs.
As if the lungs weren't enough to be getting on with, my dislocatey!joints do not approve of running. And will express said disapproval by attempting to go off in a huff. My ankles also have a close & loving relationship with the ground, which leads to them making like the Pope after a flight & kissing the concrete on a regular basis. Quite often I won't simply turn my ankle the one way, but it will roll so it touches the floor on all sides until impeded by my foot. My L knee has been reconstructed 3 times to the R's once - running is on the list of things that will massively accelerate my needing my knees replacing & I am all sorts of unlearn on that idea. (My pataellae might be bashed to bits & a bit rubbish, but they're mine. And the left one managed to repair the ginormous hole in the cartilage on the back of it even though it I was told it was simply not possible for it to repair itself in the circumstances & the microfracturung had been done as Best Practice & because had to be seen to let knee try (& fail) to heal itself before I could have the next set of surgery. But my knees are as stubborn as the rest of me, so managed to replace the cartilage covering for the back of the left kneecap...
Even with the painkillers I'm on, running (especially on concrete) is INCREDIBLY painful. My Assistant Brownie Leader is a runner & it has helped me with getting my head properly round the fact that (for most people) running is not, in fact, agonising jolts of pain with every step until you mid-step or twist & then it's your damaged spine doing the screaming & you can't feel your lower limbs properly...
Short sprints (& indeed hurdles...) I used to enjoy at school. Can still just about do them now, if I'm careful & conditions are right.
My "thing" is ballet. As recommended by my awesome (sadly now retired) superspecialist rheumatologist. Fighting my body for every single movement, but it's slowed deterioration (would almost certainly otherwise be a fulltime wheelchair user now) & REALLY helped with various things, including rebuilding my bone mass (am now closer to the "normal" line than the "osteoporosis" line when at diagnosis was RIGHT at osteoporosis end of osteopenia range: yay!). Ballet makes me happy, too, in various ways - I love doing it as well as it being so important for me health-wise.
Much as I love ballet & wouldn't trade it to be able to run, I do feel a little jealous of people who can run. It must be very... freeing. I like to walk & will happily do so for hours & miles (when my body will cooperate, obviously!) at a time. I have a suspicion running is like the best kind if walk, but better: tuning out the world & focusing on yourself; & because of the speed, occasionally getting that same feeling of flying you sometimes get doing grand allegro in ballet.
So please persevere, OP. I know quite a few people who've done C25K & who're now confident runners having previously sworn They Just Couldn't. It seems like lots of people on here think you should try it too. If you try it & it doesn't work out/isn't for you, that's ok. Running isn't for everyone (though it would be good if it was, given the bit where it is free & easily accessible!) but persevering is definitely worth it.
Good luck 
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