Workout Anywhere

Yesterday Kathy wrote about helping a friend, "We looked at the paneling and said, 'No way,' then proceeded to rip it off and actually gut an entire room, removing all the old plaster and lathe board to the studs with only hammers...then haul it all out to a huge truck and lift and throw it in - Never have I had such an intensive almost 5 hour workout!

Sheryl reported over lunch last week how thrilled she was when the workout instructor wrote up a plan for her to follow on her own in the pool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to her Monday, Wednesday, Friday group pool classes.

In his seventies, father walked every day on country roads near his home.  In a daily log, he added his completed miles each day, cummulatively, to the miles from previous days.  He smiled with a gleam in his eye when reporting the hundreds of miles he'd walked.

Jackie picks up her sister-inlaw every morning on her way to Curves, where they will progress to the next room in a couple weeks to work out with their own personal plans programmed into each machine.

Steve devised a plan to walk across the state of Massachusetts, then carried it out!  He experienced the bonds of sharing segments of the journey with different friends, enthusiastically chronicling his discoveries in a blog.

Peg ran her first marathon in her 50's, finishing in a most respectable time, next to many very experienced marathon runners. 

My daughter, Melinda, is running for the first time in Chicago's half-marathon --thirteen miles-- at the end of October.  Though she does not like running and reports that literally everything hurts after six miles, she continues to work her training plan with an almost gritting-her-teeth determination to complete the race.  Working out last weekend, running the city path along Lake Michigan with the wind at her back in the sunny, yet cool & crisp, fall air...at mile six she called to say, "This really feels good today!"

Melinda

I don't tear down walls, swim, calculate the miles I've walked, cross whole states on foot, or run marathons, but at my best I can relate to every one of these get-up-and-go, just-do-it ventures.  That is the key, isn't it?   At our best, we move.  At our best, we relate.  At our best, we understand our connection to everyone and everything around us.

Then we get to come home, maybe apply a cool face mask, and sink into a warm steamy tub with a glass of mineral water (or Merlot for some!)