Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Better Than A Cheeseburger


Every Tuesday I wake with a knot in my stomach.  This knot is partially excitement - as I know that I will start my day off with a kick-ass workout at Clay - and partially fear - as I know that I will start my day off with a kick-ass workout at Clay.

Don't get me wrong - I love nothing better than knocking out a heart-pumping, sweat-inducing, muscle-fatiguing workout with Hyam.  I don't, however, always appreciate it first thing in the morning.

Yesterday morning, however, I had a knot for a different reason. I woke to a text that said Hyam's dog was very, very sick and she was going to have to cancel. I'm a huge dog lover and I know that Hyam's dog means the world to her, so the knot started out of sympathy and fear, rather than excitement.  I also knew that sick dog or not, Hyam was NOT going to let me get off without a workout, so that knot continued to grow out of anticipation as I waited to hear from her. 

Over the next hour we determined that it would be best for me to stay home with KK, who was sick again (damn cold & flu season) and make up the session at Friday's Athletic Training class. This left me with 2 options for Tuesday - 1) allow myself to take a day off (I have been working really hard lately...) or 2) workout on my own. 

Hmmm.....what to do?

Something crazy must be in the air because by noon I could no longer stand the feeling of having not worked out and I found myself hopping on a treadmill and running for 45 minutes. What? Follow that up with several hours of hauling Christmas decorations to the attic (yes, I know it's mid-January - don't judge) and I had myself a workout!

Okay, so it wasn't exactly the workout I would've had a Clay, but I did get off my ass and burn some calories. And I ran. I RAN, people! Later in a text Hyam commended my efforts and my response was "Well, it was no personal training session with you, but it was better than a nap and a cheeseburger." Sounds funny now, but this was probably what I would've done a few months ago if given the opportunity to miss a session. I may have even added in a glass of wine.  It was my day off, after all, I deserved it, right?

It hit me later that night not only how backwards it is that I tend to reward myself on my "off days", but that just doing something - anything - is better than doing nothing at all.  Would I have benefited from a more intense workout? Definitely. But did I benefit from what I ended up doing? Fo sho.

2 comments:

  1. Good for you!

    If you ever find yourself with an open slot instead of time with Hyam, I'd be delighted to walk or run with you.

    Also, my Christmas decorations are still waiting in the man cave to be stored in the garage, so you're ahead of me.

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  2. Jen, I'd LOVE to walk or run with you any time! I am only at Clay Tues and Sat so I definitely have days I need to fill with exercise. I don't think I could keep up with your running yet, but if you're willing to start with a fast walk I will hopefully catch you by spring!

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