Day 2: 5:05 PM

I put off running as long as I could. I did some chores. I wrote some. Eventually, I just wanted to get it over with.

I experienced a little chafing from my binder after yesterday. So I switched to a new one. This ended up causing some problems and I will get stuff to deal with the chafing instead. Here's what happened:

First, I stepped out the door and went to turn on my iPod, which I keep on low, but which helps me time how long I've been at it. My iPod was dead. I had a moment of brief panic as the door slammed shut behind me. This door I do not have a key for. I'll have to walk around!

I'm unsure why I was worried about walking around to the front door, except that I'm pretty sure I'm lazy. Never mind the fact that I've just left the house to go for a jog. Either way, laziness wins and I decide I will jog without music. In the interest of saving face while I run with my iPod in my hands, I keep the ear buds in my ears.

As I run, I get some encouragement from a park-dweller. I'm not sure she actually lives in the park, but since I've only seen her the once and she was in the park, I'm going to assume she does. However, she did not yell at me for running through her living room. So there's that. I'm probably wrong.

I was unable to tell if her encouragement was honest-to-goodness encouragement, or if she was actually poking fun at me. In order to not curl into a ball on the ground and suck my thumb, I chose to believe the former.

By the time I was around three minutes in, I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't breathe. My whole abdomen was full of stitches and my lungs hurt fairly badly. In the interest of not passing out in the middle of the park, I slowed to a walk. I attempted to catch my breath. I felt myself starting to panic, like I was having an asthma attack, the likes of which I haven't felt since I had bronchitis my senior year of high school. I forced myself to calm down and think about what was happening. It became clear that my binder was incredibly too tight. I wasn't getting enough oxygen because my lungs were not being allowed to expand enough.

By this time, I'd been walking for about 15 minutes. I headed back to the apartment. I jogged for another thirty seconds before I decided it maybe wasn't worth it to push it today. I climbed one step in the courtyard and felt my bad knee go, "NOOOOOoooooo!" I told it to shush and kept walking. It obviously was not actually hurt, because I didn't feel it again. It just wanted to whine.

I made it up the stairs to the apartment with no incident. I got the hell out of that binder as quickly as possible.

My legs are fine after today's run. But my chest feels like someone injected it with air made of pain and I'm disappointed in my workout.

I will cut my losses, charge my iPod, and go back to my old broken-in binder tomorrow. At least my feet don't hurt.