No Pain, No Gain....

The only thing that I can compare the way my body feels right now is to an overcooked strand of spaghetti. I'm trying to function like I normally do at the simplest tasks. My brain is telling my legs to move when I walk, but my muscles are simply responding in protest. "No more!", they shout! Every step I take my legs are wobbly, every time I try to lift my arm, it falls back to my side. I think my body is shutting down.

Tonight marked the first session of our Bootcamp Workout. I was more excited than scared to begin the work on a better "me"! Our workout was set in the park on a beautiful June evening just as the sun was starting to go down - What a night! People were heading home from work and onlookers eyed us as we were lead through our group exercise. The audience really didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. At one point we used the park benches to do body dips & a homeless man sitted next to us was heckling the team! We were unphased! At the time, I was more concerned about my form and holding in my core than what gibberish he was spouting. All was going pretty smoothly until we got toward the last part of the work out. Next on the list, the team was split in two. While half of us were doing jumping jacks the other part of the team simultaneously did walking lunges down to the end of the park's grass and back. Halfway through the jumping jacks my legs began to complain. It wasn't anything really directed at me, just more of a background moan and grown. Then it was our turn to do the walking lunges. Oh dear! By the time I was heading down toward the other end of the park, all hell broke loose! Somehow, Norma Rae was leading the revolt and all my muscles & even my lungs were falling in suit. My body wasn't having it! After many months of sitting on the couch, THINKING about getting fit, this is the payback my good intentions gave me. I wasn't going to make it! All the reasons played in my head - "What were you thinking? These women are a fraction of your age & weight!", "Just imagine how red your face is now for everyone to see!", "Do you feel this burning? How can you possibly put us through another one of these! "Are you breathing? I don't think you're breathing!" Then the trainer said, as if on que, "Are you breathing? Remember to breath!" I think the look of "Are you kidding me???" was hard to hide, but I powered through it. My lunges might not have been very pretty, and I may have even stopped dead in my tracks two lunges away from the finish line - but I mustered up the energy to get the last two that I had in me, out! I made it!! A high five exchanged with another team mate! I AM DONE! To my relief, our trainer called it a night after that. Whew! It took me quite a while to regain my composure. The sweat kicked in and my face did it's usual beat red, blotchy thing, but I did it! It may have not been the best work out of my life, but I made it through relatively unscathed.

Heading home with the windows down, enjoying the last rays of sunshine before they fell behind the hill, I felt accomplished! Even when I got home, exhausted, I still had enough energy to run through my daily endurance tests! My husband told me he was proud of me, and you know what? I'm proud of me too! I survived the day! Tomorrow may be another story, as I'm already feeling the stiffness set in. But you know what? I can feel practically every muscle in my body right now and that is a really good feeling! Sure, it may hurt right now, but it's a good kind of hurt.

As the old saying goes, "No pain, no gain!"

Can we say "Bring it!"? Amen.