Much Pain….no gain
What the hell was I thinking? Well, last Monday evening, after a nice steak dinner, I was doing the couch potato thing, letting my food settle while watching reruns of “Surivvor”. I decided that getting up every morning and going to the fitness center for cardio and weight training wasn’t enough. So, I tied on my running shoes, chose a route in the neighborhood and headed out to see how much distance these old legs and lungs could take. To my surprise i actually went further than I expected and I was pretty proud of myself, if you don’t mind my saying so. For at least the first quarter mile I might have even been mistaken for someone who had been running on a reqular basis. I had the shoes and the running gear to look the part. Now, the morning after……THAT was a whole different story. I woke up feeling like I’d been used as a speed bump to slow down neighborhood traffic. Oh sure, I expected my legs to hurt ! But not the rest of my body too. I must have broken something! I checked. Nope, everything seemed okay. With every muscle in both legs surely tied in knots, I crawled out of bed about 5:45, reluctantly and very slowly. I confess that for a fleeting moment, I considered skipping the morning workout.
But I just couldn’t make myself do it. I must be a glutton for punishment. I have to say that when the workout was behind me and I had the Jeep pointed toward the nearest Starbuck’s and the well-earned pumpkin spice latte, I felt pretty good. The scale at the fitness center had confirmed that indeed the pounds were slowly disappearing. I was losing weight and gaining ground.
(Fast forward…about a week and a half) The weekday runs in the evening and weekend morning runs continue and the muscle aches are about all gone. I’m just a little less winded on that last mile and actually considering stretching out and adding a mile or two to the route. With the fall season comes 5k races just about every weekend and while I have no false delusions of being competitive, I know I can finish, without being the last to cross the line.
Things are looking up! It’s getting colder every day so at some point I may have to bring it back inside and return to the treadmill. But I’ll cross that “bridge” when I come to it I suppose.