Hope

It has recently come to my attention that regular lunches at Chipotle combined with happy hour drinks and appetizers and lots of TV time will not get you into the fighting triathlon shape I desire. Now that I know this, I can do something about it, and so I'm trying. I took another class at the gym last night, a Core Conditioning class that left me unable to blog last night. Or to walk. The class was only a half hour, but I was surprised to learn just how much torture can be packed into thirty minutes time. It's a lot more than you might think.

I showed up early, having learned from Saturday's Strictly Strength class I was still hurting from that, especially in January, these classes fill up quickly. I asked a gal waiting alongside me what tools we needed to grab for this particular class. She told me for sure a mat and an exercise ball, but that the instructor would let us know what else we might need this time. Just minutes later the instructor did just that, telling us we would also need a medicine ball. I was scared. I quickly grabbed a spot since they were going fast and planted my feet so as not to lose any valuable real estate. Then the artificially sped-up, pulsating gym class music began. I hate that music.

With just thirty minutes to work, the instructor wasted no time in getting our heart rates up. We rotated our hips while sitting on the exercise balls, being careful not to move our shoulders. Yes, that small movement elevated my heart rate. Embarrassing. I thought, "this is easy," and then, seconds later, it wasn't. The remaining twenty-nine minutes were a blur of crunches and balancing poses and shaking legs and burning muscles and losing my footing. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one struggling to not fall down, but that really didn't make me feel any better. I was so happy when it was over that I almost cried, and then laughed at the idea I had prior to class that maybe I'd hop on the treadmill when I was done. That wasn't going to happen. I still hadn't recovered from Saturday's class brutality, so this was just pain on top of pain. 

The only thing that made me feel better today was watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Hope for our broken nation, hope for my broken body. I have hope we'll both be better soon.