Paying the Piper

O.k. That was painful.  Reality always bites. We often try to keep this image in our heads: I'm still the size I was in college, I can still run a six-min mile like I did five years ago, I can still press this amount of weight.  It makes us feel good to fool ourselves into believing that apathy and lack of dedication in training have no consequences. That the natural state of all matter over time is not degeneration, but perfection. We have the ideal in our minds and refuse to look into the mirror. Or, if we do, we skew the image slightly to fit the square peg in the round hole of our conscientiousness. That's just human nature, and I'm as guilty as the next person.  I was hoping I hadn't really lost that much endurance over these three months.

What was an easy workout for the triathletes nearly killed me.  We ran a two-mile warm up down the busy streets clogged with people and dogs.  My pacing both there and back was around a nine-minute mile. Thankfully, no livestock this time. Then, we did 400m sprints.  The rest of the group did six, I could only muster up the gumption to tackle four.  We did them in three minute time frames.  From the start of the clock you had three minutes until the next sprint.  So, if you raced through the quarter mile in one minute, you had two minutes to rest before you did it again. Let's just say I did a lot less resting than the rest of the group and leave it at that. Then, it was a relaxed two-mile run back home. I was anything but relaxed as I gasped in the dusty street air, trying to keep up. It will be several more weeks of seeing the backs of their heads as they run far ahead of me before my body finally decides to kick things into high gear and try to keep up.  

I could continue to lament the huge gulf I have before me, or I can focus on the positive.  I will chose to do the latter.  I went out and did the workout knowing I would be the slowest one.  And, I will do it again tomorrow.  Everything has consequences, and it's time I paid up.  My team was glad to have me back and it felt good to be training with them again.  I faced the reality beast and now know where I am.  While it's not where I want to be, it could have been worse.  I never had to walk!

We have our pool workout tomorrow.  I haven't done a swim since December.  This will be interesting!