Taking a Dose of my Own Medicine

So last night I went to bed feeling completely congested.   Allergy season is upon us!   I went to bed early in hopes of giving my body a little extra recovery time to fight off what ever it was dealing with.  It helped, but I was repeatedly sneezing in no time.  My first thought?  Maybe I should skip working out.  After all, Cynthia is not coming over to workout today. No one would blame me for taking a day off... Besides, it is about to rain!  Mind games were in full effect.  Then I thought about the post I wrote only yesterday about exercise being a decision.  Good grief, Lisa!  Take a dose of your own medicine and get out there!   It's just some silly allergies, not a torn ligament!  So even though I was not feeling totally motivated, I made the decision to run. I had to go to school to sign a permission slip, I figured I would see if I could run the whole way and back without joint pain.  It was about 3 miles total.  So guess what? It actually felt pretty good to be out there! I ran on the side of the road on the dirt. I took the first mile kinda slow, but then I picked up the pace. I got into a rhythm and before I knew it, I was finished!


Three miles is not exactly a huge distance, but in that short time, I learned a few things that I would not have if I had sat home nursing my nose.

1)  Running on dirt is much less jarring on my bones than road running.

2) In the Insanity workout, Shaun T. talks about lifting your legs with your core by leaning forward ever so slightly.  I concentrated on lifting rather than pushing off.  I found that by getting my core more involved, my gait slightly changed. I was not landing quite so heavy on my feet.  The bonus was, I could feel my abs getting involved ( six pack here I come!)

3) Exercise clears out the sinuses!  Okay, I kinda knew that, but I needed the reminder of actually doing it. It felt good to breathe.

4)  Sticking with the Decision to Exercise despite what the mind chatter is saying is always the right choice.

The best news of all was that my knees/ hips did not bother me AT ALL!     I will definitely continue the "lift with the core" technique and see where it takes me.   What  have you learned recently by working out?