The Exercise Experience Journal #2

Friday, March 29, 2019

My workout days and times to go to the gym tend to be a little unconventional. Where most people like to have Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, I like to keep a Friday, Sunday, Tuesday schedule. And whenever I plan on working out at the gym, it’s late at night between 22:00–00:00. That’s right, I used military time. It’s a whole lot easier… once you get use to it 😏…. and if your still not buying it, it’s 10pm to midnight.

Why the odd schedule? Well I’m glad you asked, and if you didn’t, I’m going to tell you anyway. Friday is the last day for most people and the night that starts the weekend. So people are highly likely to skip this day for working out, even if it’s part of their workout schedule. Sundays people are too often recovering from the last to nights and just want to relax. And Tuesday, because it’s one of those off days and I really needed a third day 😁. And the reason for going late at night is because almost no one is there, so no need to wait for equipment.

Unfortunately, I ended up having to skip Friday, not to get a party going, but because I had spent all day helping a guy pull weeds. I was either squatting or on my hands and knees the whole day. And I’ll tell you, I was so sore, I didn’t want to do anything else that night!

I went to church that Saturday and my hip flexors and glutes were tight. Sitting down and getting up quickly became a service challenge. For some reason, I thought it would have been my arms and back. But no, it was in my pelvic region… and my hips don’t lie 😏!

Sunday, March 31, 2019

I will say now that summer is here, I do want to work out more outside. And with it being in the 60° range, it’s great weather for a run.

So I strapped on my avias, took a deep breath, and thought: I’m not ready for this 😑😓. But it must be done!

On my way out I saw one of my neighbors moving out. I never got to know her personally, but I did occasionally strike up small talk with her daughter Shalaina who visited periodically. Shalaina lived about 30 minutes away. So I guess she decided to help her mother move closer.

Shalaina gave me a heads up that It’s going to rain at 13:00. Granted, it was 10:30, so I should have lots of time to finish my run. But on the other hand, the weather in Virginia is absolutely nuts. It could honestly be 80% chance of rain and we get scorching sun followed by a blizzard (slight exaggeration).

Of course I had to pace myself with a walk run for 3 miles. One thing I’ve learned over the times that I’ve ran is It’s good to walk the rest if you can’t run all the way.

Why is grass harder to run on? It’s not hard in the sense of stiffness or comparing it to a rock. It’s more like it wears me out so I can’t run as far as I would on a smoother surface. I don’t know for sure, but I’m convinced it has something to do with the irregular level of the ground. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, select, start (like some late 20th century game console cheat code 😉).

Fortunately my Plantar Fasciitis…. you know what, from now on let’s just call it Lego foot! That’s a whole lot easier than having to type the actual condition out.

Well anyway today wasn’t too bad… as far as the run goes anyway. I was able to keep a walk-run pace for most of the run; which was much better today than before. The real challenge was that I couldn’t move as fast as I had before. It was like I was a little bogged down, so I could run, just not very fast.

Some of the challenges facing me was first this train passing me. Not that I was racing the train, but the railroad cuts right through the route I take, so if it beats me to where I need to turn back in, I’m stuck on that side until it passes through. Fortunately, it stopped before then and the way was wide open for me… freedom!!!…. Then the rain came… at 11:00… a whole whopping 2 hrs early. It had threatened to drizzle off and on before, but nothing was really coming of it, so I thought, i might make it before it rains… nope! Thank Father and Mother it was only a light rain. So as long as I was running, it was tolerable. To top it all off, my headphones 3/4 of the way. So I had to go without music for the rest of the run.

The rest of the week was kind of a bust, I ended up having a long rest before picking up again on Sunday.