Saturday, April 06, 2013

Worked Out

I added a third day of intense exercise this week, and I am feeling every bit of it. My core muscles are so sore that it hurts to laugh. That's a good thing, right?

I started my week with a combo of cycling and heavy lifting on Monday, then did interval training on Wednesday and a combo of cycling and rowing yesterday. Tomorrow, I'm picking up a yoga class to see how that goes. Hard to believe that six months ago, I had no clue what kettlebells, TRX, burpees, tabata sets or mountain climbers were. Now, I'm doing each of those 2-3 times a week and living to tell the tale.

I don't like exercise, but I like seeing the results of exercise. I like noticing that I did better with jumps on the stationary bike yesterday than I did last week -- and even better than when I first started in January. I also like sleeping through the night -- a lifelong challenge for me. My progress is my motivation, and I need a big motivator to keep getting up at 4:30 a.m.

But again, it's worth it. The best part isn't even how my body is changing, it's who is watching. When I come home from the studio in the morning, my sleepy-eyed daughter gets wide-eyed and animated. She wants to know all about Mommy's exercises and then she wants me to watch her exercise. Her "exercises" are doing jumps and flips on my bed, but it's still cute and it's proof that what I am doing right now is making an impression on her and who she is becoming.

That makes everything I am doing right now worthwhile -- the early mornings, the sore muscles, the failed attempts at advanced exercises. And it's why I look forward to doing it all over again next week.

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