With the new season of So You Think You Can Dance airing, I’ve noticed a distinct rise in tweets, comments and questions about how one might get into dancing. There’s just something inspirational about seeing masters at their craft, and the romance of a Waltz, passion of a Tango, and sheer enjoyment of a Lindy can be overwhelming. In short, it sparks a little bit of wonder and a wish to learn to do it ourselves.

As someone who’s started to dance late in life and has been doing it for a few years now, I figured I’d offer a few pointers on how to make that wish a reality.

I ran five miles yesterday. This is taking some time to sink in, and I still don’t quite believe it myself. It’s certainly an accomplishment for someone who came from the world of morbid obesity, and I am having a hard time not being smug at everyone I know.

Of course there are some caveats- I scaled my speed down to a 10 minute mile with ten second negative splits on the mile, so other than the distance increase I wasn’t really pushing myself. Even so it feels like a significant accomplishment not only because it’s the longest I’ve ever run in my entire life, but because I’ve also managed to break past the 3.1 mile mental barrier that comes with training for a much shorter race.

What really struck me about the whole experience is how easy it was to go the extra mile(s). Once I’d gotten up to speed and convinced my body it wasn’t stopping anytime soon, it was just a matter of keeping my mind occupied while my feet did all the work. My iPod really helped with that, but I’m told the bigger races don’t allow headphones. I can already imagining myself stopping after the 3rd mile because I got bored and saw something shiny lying in the road.