Is this a phase? -Or will it stick?

Honestly I was (and still am) a little hesitant to write and publish this post.  Typically what seems to happen with new things for me, is that right about the time I start to feel good about it and share whatever it is with others, is about the time that my new phase finds an abrupt ending.  Then I have friends and family asking me how the new thing is going... and I always regret having talked about it since it so quickly died out.

(If you look back at my older posts tagged with 'exercise', you can see proof of this!)

In this case at least, I am pretty sure this is the longest period of time that a new phase for me has stuck around.  So, that's a plus that hasn't happened before (at least as far as I can remember).  Also I have a goal that I'm working toward and am genuinely curious if I can do it or not, so that is also something I've never had before helping to keep it going.

For the last six weeks I have been running and trying to exercise on a consistent basis.  Let me clarify to  you what I mean by running though... it started as almost all walking with a bit of S-L-O-W jogging (which, well, is my running) and I have been very gradually increasing the amount of jogging time while decreasing the walking time.

I'm sure that for a lot of people this is really nothing to talk about.  However for me it is huge.  I have not done anything really active or athletic since... about middle school.  In middle school I played basketball (yes I was on the 7th grade C team and played in 1 game -and cried!) and ran track and field doing the long jump, hurdles (which I hated), and the shorter sprint races and relays.  I was not by any means great -probably not even good- but well, I guess that's middle school for you.  Anyways.  At the end of middle school I magically seemed to develop asthma overnight.  The beginning of the year I was fine and then one day running during track I thought I was going to die and couldn't breath and started seeing weird colors and was sure I was going to pass out.  I was told to walk it off.  Turns out I had exercise induced asthma and it pretty much completely changed the game for me.  With my new inhaler I could still run somewhat but it was really different and difficult.  Since then, I have allowed that to prevent me from trying any sort of real athletic activity for the last 13 years since eighth grade.

Something at the end of February and beginning of March got into my mind about trying to run.  For the life of me I cannot figure out what it was that I got the idea and curiosity from.  It was like suddenly out of nowhere I wanted to see if I could run again.  I got an up-to-date inhaler from my doctor and some medication for both my asthma and allergies and then felt like I was ready to at least try.  I read various articles online about running for an absolute beginner and everything seemed to agree about doing a walk-run system that started with mostly walking and little running and gradually shifts to more running and little walking.  I decided to create a system to try based on 5 minute intervals for 30 total minutes of time.  My system is SUPER gradual.  Most things I saw online had much bigger increases in running each week than I am doing, but honestly I think going this slow is the only way I'll be able to hopefully do it.  I started with 4 minutes walking and BARELY tried to do 1 minute of jogging.  Each week I am shifting 30 seconds of walk time over to run time.  My end goal is to be able to run 30 minutes without dying.  I'm still not sure if I'll actually be able to do that with my breathing, but I am genuinely curious if I work towards it slowly and carefully if maybe I can.

Currently I just finished my sixth week of running!  For my last interval of running each time, I keep running as long as I feel like I can.  This past week made me really excited because on the last running interval I crossed over the 5 minute mark and added a super brief sprint at the very end.  Also my total run time is now greater than total walk time during the whole 30 minutes.  Small things to be excited about, but I am.

So now my big question is will this last?  Is it just a phase, or will it stick?  I hope it sticks.  I am actually really enjoying it, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I like keeping a record of what all I've done.  This is what I've done so far.