[Gemme]

Today was AWESOMMMMME!

I spent about an hour and 40ish minutes at the gym from walking in the door to walking out.

The workout itself was really good but what makes today's workout so AWESOMMMME (must be said loudly and in a sing song voice drawing out the 'some') was that I learned something, oh yes I did. I exercised not only my muscles and my mind (because it's mostly mental anyway) but I exercised my self-control and it worked out very well for me. I also exercised practicing protecting my boundaries, even from myself, because if I can't honor my own boundaries...how can I expect others to?



Let me elaborate:

I started on the treadmill for a couple of reasons. I typically do it because it's a nice and easy warm up and because, frankly, it's my favorite piece of cardio equipment.

I was doing pretty well, chugging along using the random program (again, my favorite) at the level 1 setting because I'm just getting back into things. I don't want to do too much too soon. That's how I typically injure myself and/or lose motivation. I was doing my interval runs between 5.2 and 6.2 mph because, well, that's what my finger stopped at when I was pushing the button. So, I'm going along and I notice that my feet feel weird. No, not my feet....I actually had a conversation with myself about this as it was progressing (No worries, it was purely inside my head! No alarming the other worker outters.) After a second, I realized what it was. I had just grabbed the first socks I could in the drawer and I wound up putting on those low suckers with hardly any cuff to it and now the slippery things were sliding down my feet, leaving my heels rubbing against my shoes. My heels are super sensitive and it would not be long at all before I'd have a couple of nice, bubbly blisters if I didn't do something about it soon.

Easy enough fix, right? Just stop and readjust them, right? Um, not so easy. I was really grooving in my workout and I have a numbers thing. I can end a workout at 25 minutes or 30 minutes but I'll be hard pressed to end it at 18 minutes or 22 minutes. Yes, yes...I know, but we all have our idiosyncrasies, don't we? So, because of my numbers thing and because I was doing so well with the workout and feeling really strong and into it, I continued until I got to an acceptable time and then I ended the program, calculated my stats (again, a numbers thing combined with a control thing) and took my shoes off and pulled the socks so far up my heels they looked like crew socks from the back. Let's see those slip down again! Hrmph!

Round two!

So, I hop back onto T17 (because that's my treadmill's name) and start 'er up again. Why? Why not move to a different machine or go play with weights? Because when I'm grooving in a workout, it's best to stick with what I'm doing. My focus gets fractured when I switch it up when I'm in the zone. So, T17 and I go at it again and we're really feeling one another. This time I upped my level to 3 but kept with the random program because it's not boring because...you guessed it!...it's random! Since I was still warm from the first leg of my workout, I started harder and faster and this is where my lessons really began to come into play.

A few years ago, I tweaked my knee bad. Not enough for MRIs or surgery but enough to really effin hurt for a very long time and to basically bring my workouts involving that leg at all to a standstill. I do NOT want to do that again. Some lessons I need to work through a few times before it sticks. That is not one of those. So, I'm usually really on top of not doing too much too soon and really staying connected mentally to my body as I work out. I used to zone out mentally and get lost in the music or scenery, etc but that's how I bypassed several warning signs with my knee. Focus is key!

So I set a personal boundary for myself at that time. I will increase intensity or I will increase speed but I will not increase both simultaneously. Nope, not gonna do it. Prime example: I will not break into a run if my incline is more than 1.0. Will not. It stresses my knees and I start to get worried about what could happen. I don't need that mentality when I'm trying to get my groove on. Total downer, I say.

T17 and I were getting along marvelously. Incline goes up, I slow down to a speedy walk. Incline goes down and I choose whether to run. Mostly, I opted to go for it. I was in the zone! For my second leg, I opted to stick with the exact same speed on my runs. 6.8 mph. Some of my intervals were only 45 seconds and some were almost 2 minutes but I didn't count them (progress for me!). I just enjoyed them. When I began to feel too winded, I slowed down.

One time, T17 got sneaky on me. The incline went down to .4 and I got my run on for a minute or so and suddenly it felt a lot harder. I looked down at the screen and T17 had jacked that stuff up well over 1.0 waaaay sooner than the other switches had happened. Part of me reeeeeeally wanted to keep running. It was harder but I didn't feel winded yet. BUT I had a discussion with myself (again, silently as not to scare folks) and worked it out. I slowed down and honored my own boundary. After all, I created it to protect myself. Even if it means protecting me from me.

There were a few times when the old competitive me crept up and I had to exercise some restraint. After all, this was....technically....only my third official workout since starting back. I need to be the tortoise, not the hare.

That's the path, you know. First, be the tortoise. Then, be the hare. Finally, be the eagle and flyyyyyyy!

All in all, it was a lovely workout. Two rounds on the treadmill followed by ab time on the incline bench with a medicine ball and some stretching on the mat.

Good day!