Fast Walking

I went to the gym yesterday with NinjaOne. That is what I have decided to call my two students. NinjaOne and NinjaTwo. NinjaOne once told me that if I wasn't on the mat she would have turned around and walked out the door and not come to class. Since I was always on the mat (they were my scheduled teaching days) she came to class.

NinjaTwo (who is no less than one) told me a few weeks ago that if it hadn't been for me she would have quit years ago. That floored me. I told her I never knew I was that important to her. She seemed surprised that I didn't know this. I still have a hard time believing that I am so important to some people who are not related to me by blood. Anyway, NinjaTwo was sick yesterday, so she could not come to the gym with us. But she had worked out after class Saturday with another student (who I led to black belt when I went for my second) so I wasn't too concerned. I knew she'd had a good workout.

NinjaOne has to loosen up her back before she starts running, so we discussed the best way to do that. Walking to class may be the best solution. NinjaTwo can give her a ride home after. NinjaOne has lost 245 pounds, so running for 20 minutes straight is a big deal. She can't do it yet, but I helped her formulate a better plan. She runs for 5 minutes straight (at 4.3 and an incline of 1), walks (at 3.5) for 3 minutes, runs for 5 minutes walks for 3 minutes. After a week of this, she should drop the second two walking breaks to 2 minutes and then try to increase the run time. Through all of this, I walked fast at 4.0 (on an incline of 1). Trying to jog any faster put too much unpleasant pressure on my knee (what with all this stupid rain, snow and cold weather it's back to hurting again). I did 30 minutes and felt good afterwards. If I do this a couple times a week (with NinjaOne and Two) I will start strengthing my legs and increase my stamina.

I really didn't like the running when I did it, but I liked the results. So I am annoyed that my knee has decided it really doesn't like running. I figure I am going to push up to the point where I know I can't go and sooner or later that point will move. And since that's what I believe, that's what's going to happen.