A tough week, but I am tougher.
Shocking, I know, that sentence was not in my typical maroon colored font. But it's important.
I just came back in from a run, and it was magnificent. So I wanted to sit down right away and document it for you guys before I forget it.
As you know from my last few posts, this week (that is, these last 5-7 days) has been hell. Absolute hell. I cannot wait for it to start going on the upswing again. It's so ironic. I make it my mission to find JOY everywhere and then the universe is like, "nope, sorry!" Actually I kind of feel like I'm losing my mind.
So today, it's 65 F and sunny. I decided to go for a run and get my endorphins going and see if I can't find a little joy along the way. I did a little warm-up workout in my living room (see Challenge post) and then tied on my runners and out the door I went.
Right from the start I could feel the sun. It was on my back, spreading over my bare shoulders like a blanket. It was warming me. I imagined I was solar powered and the sun was charging my batteries, like Wall-E. Blip, blip, blip, DDUUUUNNNNN! I'm alive! I ran along the outer back edge of my neighborhood and saw people sitting in their back yard observing the creek. Lovely.
Then I came to a small hill. My legs were already tired from running yesterday, but I swung my arms extra hard and propelled myself up the hill. Thankfully the sidewalk flattened out again and stayed flat for another few minutes.
As I was running past a building of flats (that I actually remember them building. My sister and I went into it while it was still a skeleton building in 2009 when I first moved here) I realized what Outkast was singing about when he said "roses smell like poo-poo." It wasn't roses I smelled but it was some flower and it smelled awful. I had to laugh.
My shoes pounded over the first footbridge, the smell of the wood hot in my nose. For some reason I thought I saw smoke but then I never smelled any. I ran up another slight hill, across another wood footbridge and around a grassy area full of dandelions and little tiny daisies.
Then I came to it: "the Citadel." The Citadel is actually 112th Ave or something. It's a residential street but it's quite steep. There's actually another hill (113th) that I've since named "The Citadel" and now this one is "the Little Citadel" but today it seemed like the real thing. Fortunately, I didn't have to run up the Citadel today, but down was just as hard since my legs were aching. Down the Citadel I went! About 50 feet from the bottom I realized my body was getting all out of whack. My legs absolutely screamed as I pulled my body back on top of them and continued down. Immediately the road goes right back up again, which was not much relief.
As I chugged up the small incline, I looked at my legs. They looked strong. Not as small as I'd like, but they weren't too terrible. Well, I thought, I've seen worse! I also noticed that I wasn't really feeling my core "jiggle." (I put that in quotes because some people say it doesn't actually jiggle, but I perceive it to be doing so.) I felt strong. It was nice.
I blew past 2 ladies and a stroller on the 3rd and final footbridge, then burst into what I call "Mystic Park." It's actually called "George Foege Park" or something, but when I first found it, in November 2009, I came into it in the midst of a fog bank and it looked like it was 10,000 miles away from civilization, up in the clouds or something. Ever since then it's been "Mystic Park" in my mind.
After that it was pretty much "Boom, Boom, Boom" my feet on the pavement until I got to the Bullfrog area. There's this wetlands at the bottom of my neighborhood that is home to like hundreds of bullfrogs in the summer and fall. The sun was on my left side. I felt great! My shoes sounded like they were saying, "run! run! run!" on the pavement. I came out on Barnes Road, ran past this giant oak tree and past the little spot where the cops hide to catch speeders coming down the hill.
Almost home! I thought. I turned into Timberland and before me stretched the final uphill piece. Long and gradual. No problem right? Wrong! With it came a headwind. Oh. My. Goodness. My legs screamed. My lungs burned. I was so determined not to walk! I swung my arms, breathed as deep as I could, stretched out my legs and ran like hell. Crossed one street, another, almost there, you can do it!
I have never been so happy to crest a hill in my life. I ran down the short decline to the traffic circle and walked the remaining 50 feet to my doorstep.
My endorphins are pumping now. My legs are so tired. I have to teach Zumba at 6:30 but at least I feel good about myself. That's a start, right? And I got some Vitamin D. Extra bonus.
XO
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