Exercise hurts!

Yesterday I went back to the YMCA for the first time this whole year (33 days in!) and the fitness instructor tried to kill me with exercise.  Seriously!  She was sadistic.  It was supposed to be a “Turbo Kick” class, which is a kickboxing/dance mix class, apparently, but I’ve never been to the class, so I don’t know.  This lady was the sub for the sub for the usual teacher who was out sick, and she didn’t know it was supposed to be kickboxing, which really didn’t matter to anyone other than the two people there who usually come to the regular class.  Me and the other lady in the class (that makes four people total in the class), were newcomers so whatever she did, we had nothing to compare it to.

What she did was an hour of strength and cardio. Which, you know, sounds great!  Strength!  Cardio!  Good stuff for working out and getting stronger and leaner.  So she said to grab a mat and a step and a variety of weights.  And then proceeded to run us through paces that included lunges and pushups and lifting weights and crunches and planks and . . . I’m genuinely blanking on some of the stuff we did because my brain doesn’t want to think about it.  It HURT.  I haven’t done weights in forever and my body is weak.  I admit this freely!  I’m a weakling!  I’m hauling around 90 extra pounds on my frame and that seems like enough weight to lift, you know?  Lunges are hard enough!  Add an 8 pound weight held at each shoulder and I’m in pain!

So, yeah.  It was rough. I made it through the whole class, but there was a time when I went to the wall and just stood there gasping for breath and waiting for my heart rate to slow back down to normal.  I didn’t go as fast as the teacher and I didn’t do as many reps as the teacher and I definitely collapsed to the floor a couple times because it just hurt too much to do anything else.  And I definitely had tears spring to my eyes a couple times as my body and my brain realized that I just could not do whatever I was supposed to be doing and everything hurt and it wasn’t just that I didn’t have the strength of will to do any more – I was completely and utterly spent.

But again:  I made it all the way through that hour.  And then I went home, started cooking dinner, Justin (wonderful, wonderful man!) drew me a bath, and I soaked in that water for a long time before I got out so I could eat the dinner that Justin finished cooking for us so I could stay in the tub.  This morning?  I hurt.  My shoulders ache, my abs ache, and my butt and thighs are in a constant state of rebellion that I got out of bed at all.  Going up steps makes me whimper.  Heck, even my neck hurts!

But I feel good that I went, good that I made it through the whole time, good that I’m doing something that made me work hard enough to make me hurt this much.  It’s not the hurt like I did something to injure myself.  It’s just that ache that makes me know that my body got a solid kick in the butt and I have to go back again and again until it stops hurting so much.

But I’m glad that I’ll have a week before I go back to the gym because I’m not sure I’ll stop hurting before then.

Today, unless it’s pouring down rain (and it might), my goal is simply to take a walk.  A long walk, granted, but just a walk.  Work out the kinks in my lower limbs.  Hope that by tomorrow morning, I’m feeling better than I do today.

And that’s what’s going on with me.  If you’re reading this before 10:00 (EST), Justin has a phone call with the dean of his department at school to talk about what he needs to do in order to finish his classes and graduate.  I’m a little anxious about it because they butted heads a lot while Justin was there, but we’re kind of hoping that the dean doesn’t remember.  Anyway, it’s going to be an interesting conversation and we’re both very curious to know how it’s going to go.

Also, we’re looking at a job opportunity possibility that would be wonderful if he got it.  But getting through the first screening to just get to an interview is really tough, so . . . .

Pray for us today, please!

I’m going to go take some Advil now.

(P.S. Happy belated birthday, Krista!!  I hope your day was FANTASTIC!!)