a pavement pounding monday morn

Oh running, sweet running.  How I love you...

It was a balmy 27 degrees out this morning.  Plenty warm enough to run outside, especially since the ice has been cleared away.  I was WAY BEYOND EXCITED to get back out there.

I've been patching through with Yoga for Real Guys (YRG) combined with mornings I have to sleep to make up for sitting up too late, writing, or staying up too late, taking care of stuff I needed to have been doing while I was writing.  The YRG is fine, for an indoor workout.

It's just...this girl does NOT love indoor workouts.  

It was so nice and dark out there this morning.  It was so beautifully quiet.  Just me and the sound of my feet on the pavement and the occasional quietly passing car.  That's what morning exercise should look like, in Karen's world.  

My feet were heavy at first...I always run in "heffalump" mode when I've been away from it for a bit.  I didn't care.  I knew that would get better if I just kept going.  

I love that feeling of pushing myself to my limit.  Of my heart pounding just about out of my chest, my breath coming out in little explosions.  Sweat, sweat, and more sweat  - I was WAY overdressed and was peeling things off the whole time I ran (you can do that when everything is in 2 and 3 layers) and still came home with my hair literally dripping.  

Running the downhill part of the bridge, I felt the muscles in my legs working.  DUDE.  My legs are AMAZING.  No lie.  I mean, I looked in the mirror when I got home and they still LOOK pretty terrible - my cellulite is sticking to me like Jesus..."closer than a brother"...with no signs of ever leaving or forsaking me, darn it.  Nonetheless:  MY LEGS ARE AMAZING.  I feel what they do when I run, the whole run, but especially downhill and a little less so uphill, and it rocks my world pretty much every time.  I'm so sorry for all the years the only thing I noticed about my legs was that darn cellulite.  They deserved a lot better noticing than that.  Today, I noticed.  Today, I celebrated.  Today, like most every day that I run, I will walk with more confidence all day long, remembering that rush of joy in feeling my muscles do that thang they do.  

I'm so grateful for the C25K (Couch to 5K - google it, if you're new and don't know what that is) program, and for the stamina it took, day by day, to move from being a person who had a personal policy of never running...to a lady who just about breaks into party mode from running.  

Bring on more difference like that.