Baby steps - not quite running

Ugh... I went for my first run in a loooooong time a week ago yesterday. I wanted to see if it would be at all possible for me to even do the 10k at this year's Fort 4 Fitness. So, I stretched out, and took off really, really slow. I jogged about 1.5 miles in 15 minutes. And I was wasted. So then I walked for 5 minutes, then tried jogging again, and walking again. Then I was toast.

I suppose it's good that I was able to do 3 miles of interval walking/jogging after having done nothing but smoke cigarettes and sit on my butt for the last year. I am so out of shape. My left knee started hurting at the 7-minute mark. And that was WITH a knee brace on. Then after I was done my heel hurt pretty bad. My thighs were also very sore. I could barely make it up and down stairs for several days after. So I didn't do anything the rest of the week... other than be sore. And depressed. Starting over is so hard.

Well, I decided to try again yesterday. This time I just jogged about 8 tenths of a mile, then walked, for a total of 1.6 miles. It felt like I wasn't even doing anything... But my knee didn't hurt, my heel didn't hurt, and my legs felt good the rest of the day.

So I think I need to take baby steps. It's just hard when you have to start over from scratch. I want to start from where I left off when I stopped running. There's probably a story in there somewhere. But that would require thinking. One thing at a time...