The Treadmill

Current situation: laying on my loveseat with achy, sore legs. Why? Because this girl didn't exercise properly during her vacays (walking around hilly towns was about it) and also failed to properly exercise in between vacays. Ah, the challenges of traveling. When I was younger, I would be on the road every weekend to a new city, but the traveling was for tennis tournaments; there was no concern about whether I would get adequate exercise... two hours warm-up, two to four roughly two-hour long matches per day... plus hours and hours of training every day prior to each tournament. Exercising happened without a second thought while on the road back then. However, this summer's travels were for pleasure, and doing lots of exercise wasn't a priority. Oh how times have changed...

Now that I am back in NYC for a good bit, at least a few weeks, (although we might be taking some trips soon and will likely take a trip to Switzerland for New Year's), I am hopping back onto an exercise routine. The past two days I have been running on the treadmill... the machine that makes me feel like a hamster. My goal is to do 3 miles every day to build up stamina, in order for me to run longer distances. Two days in and my legs are feeling it. I will need like 22093 hours of foam rolling to loosen all of the tight muscles...

It's not that I don't like running, but more that the treadmill isn't my favorite thing for exercise. I would much rather run on pavement or on a trail, but since I haven't ran in a while, I am using the treadmill to get used to running more and more. Three miles a day isn't bad at all -- I used to run about ten* or so per day around the Charles River/MIT/Cambridge back in Boston and at least about six last summer in the city around the East River. However, the past two days have had me hurting... I guess I have to persist through this starting stage of getting back on track so the treadmill will still be my bff gym buddy for a while until I can run around CP in about a week or so.

In the meantime, while I am prepping to jog around CP on the treadmill, we will try to bike on Sundays in CP. I went biking for the first time in NYC in CP (my second time ever inside the park!) and and while I was initially scared out of my mind, it ended up being really fun and relaxing... a great way to sweat a bit and get the body moving as well! It was a more slow-paced beginner bike ride because I was nervous and hadn't biked in a long time, but hopefully tomorrow we will go faster! Anywho, I will go to the gym today to run my 3 miles and then go try my first Zumba class! My treadmill will be waiting for me... ouch ouch ouch... mwuahaha. :p

*Saying I ran that much is a shocker. All my life I have hated running with great passion. Would do running drills on/off the court every day for tennis training and I would let my coaches know how much I hated them every time. One time my coach sat on a bench while he timed me running Roddick 17s (running the width of a tennis court from doubles line to doubles line) in like 90 degree weather... we already did drills that involved lots of running for about four hours before that, and my legs were in so much pain... I had to redo the Roddick 17s until I made it under 50 or 52 seconds or something like that. Let's just say that training session was a lot of run, hands on knees, panting, dying, repeat. Then, after making the time, my coach and I went to the track to meet other players to do track drills... think it was like 400s, 300s, 200s, 100s, up/down again, etc. DEAD. I hated running with every ounce of my soul and always said fervently that I would never ever voluntarily run. Now here I am, running miles -- MILES -- and finding joy in running. Well, not as much joy while I'm on the treadmill, but once I'm out on the streets and in the park, I will find joy again in running. Or hopefully so... :)