An admission of weakness

January 8, 2008

Distance: 3 mi

Time: 26:00

Miles to go: 1991

Ok… I admit it… I’m weak.  Not mentally, that weakness is a long established fact.  Put a beer in front of me and watch what happens.  And you might want to stand back.

The weakness I am referring to is physical.

See, I had to run on the treadmill last night because of some really odd severe weather (a tornado warning… IN JANUARY???  WTF!!) that had it pouring BUCKETS most of the day.  I picked a program that started me out on a hill and gradually tapered the hill as the speed increased.  I was supposed to peak at about an 8:30 pace.  The program is set for 40 minutes.  But about 20 minutes into it… I felt… weak.  Not seriously, clinically weak like I was having a heart attack or anything.  This weakness was obviously due to inactivity over the last 2 months.

Maybe weakness is a bad word.  How about “lack of endurance”.  I just ran out of gas at about 3 miles.  This was hard for me.  Three miles used to be a warm up for whatever run I was actually going to do that day.  So to be breathing hard, jelly legged and straining after 3 miles was an experience I have not had in a long time.

I’m not mad or upset.  Heck, I ran three miles!  I guess I was more surprised than anything.  I knew I would lose some of my fitness level.  I guess I just didn’t know how much.  Anyway, I got off the treadmill and recovered a bit, then went in and lifted weights.  I am able to do about 3 sets of 25 sit ups now and I can do single leg lifts, so it’s gradually improving.

If I can find a dry spot (wish me luck… we got over 3 inches of rain yesterday) I am going to try to put in another 3 or 4 today.  The temperatures are supposed to start falling gradually today and be back down into the 30s by the end of the week so it will be back to a more “normal” January existence.  This should be disappointing to all the frogs that started coming out last night…!