I’ve started jogging in cardiac rehab!!!!  It was so exciting to begin!  Of course, my doctor had already given permission for me to start, but I had to work up to it in cardiac rehab to ensure my blood pressure and heart rate were doing ok first.  I am doing 26 minutes on the treadmill there now – 4 minutes @ 3.0 speed; 2 minutes @ 4.0-4.2 speed (jogging); repeat.  I’m glad they only started me with 2 minute jogging intervals.  Since I haven’t been running since February, I was fine with this short amount of time.  I don’t enjoy running on treadmills, and with the heart monitor strapped to me and nurses checking on me every few minutes, it’s a little overwhelming.  I am not experiencing shortness of breath like I thought I might (and like I did during my stress test), but I am definitely experiencing fatigue in my lower legs and heavy breathing towards the end of the 2 minutes.  My running shoes probably aren’t helping because they are an old pair that is uncomfortable.  I’m only wearing them because my other running shoes (5 years old and ready to be replaced) got soaking wet a few weeks ago and now smell incredibly terrible.  Maybe this weekend I will go shopping for running shoes!  That will also help inspire me to run.  It’s like shopping for school supplies every fall (some of you will know what I mean)!

I’ve been running now in cardiac rehab for 3 sessions and I even ran at the gym one night!  On the gym’s treadmill, I walked for 5 minutes at 3.0 speed and ran for 2 minutes at 4.0 speed.  I did this for 30 minutes total.  I felt my pace was better and overall I felt better on this treadmill.  I’m sure because I was in my own element.  The only hard thing was checking my heart rate on the machine.  I have to place my hands over the handles several times to get the reading.  I can’t wait to get my own heart rate watch!!

I haven’t set my goal yet…but I feel it coming on.  I’d like to be able to run a 5K in about a year.  Wouldn’t that be great to prove that one doctor wrong who said I’d probably never run a 5K again!!!