Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Same view, more work

Today I learned an important lesson about getting my fat, lazy ass out the door.  I got up, sat down to watch the news before heading out and thought, "I can take a 10 minute nap before leaving."

No I couldn't because the nap was closer to 30 minutes and that meant getting to the stadium at 6:15 instead of 5:45 and having to wait for the racers to off before I could start.  Basically, I started an hour later than I normally would.

Still it was a damn sight better than yesterday when I sat in my running clothes for 6 hours before I finally realized I was not going to will myself out the door for a run and changed into my regular clothes, so there's that.  I knew I was on the right track when I pulled into the stadium and Matisyahu's song "Motivation," came up in my "just play shit" (aka using the shuffle features on the songs library) mix on the iPod part of my iPhone.

I was glad to see Paulie there for his first attempt today and it was the first time I've seen Emily in what feels like forever, so that all worked for me too.

The reason this is the same view but more work is that I did it a little different today, instead of walking up one flight, walk over to the next section and down, I walked up one flight, turned around and went back down the same flight once I got a couple of sections in and in between the groups of folks.  It was good to be able to encourage folks to make it up the last few steps of their flights and I reached my mid-level goal.  (Small goal was what I did last time, big goal is last time * 2 and mid-level is half way between the two.)

Today's playlist was Beebs and her Money Makers.  I have both her albums on my iPhone and hit the "shuffle" button to mix it up between the two.  While my favorite song, "Jumpin'," did not come up in the mix, some of my other favorites did.  (Perhaps I'll build a playlist off that for next week.)

Now that I've rehydrated as well as had a waffle and some coffee, it's time to shower and get the rest of the day in motion.  I do make this promise to myself: tomorrow I WILL do week 1/day 2 of my C25K program.  No excuses, just motivation... and maybe some Jumpin' with my new shoes and my positive attitude.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Sweaty "Bro" Hugs

The worst part of my school year schedule is I really can't make my favorite workout: the Harvard Stadium workout.  I also miss the sweaty hugs from Brogan and Bojan (or, as I call them, sweaty Bro hugs)

Last week I went further than I expected and this week I pushed it further still.  Today the Harvard football team was out doing their practices and drills.  The thing is, by the time they started at 6 am, a lot of the November Project folks were well into their workouts.  Whether it was the guys doing push ups on the stairs and then frog hopping up the sections to slow people like me trying to get in before the main crowd showed up, it was a bustling place this morning.

Today was an interesting play list as Chaka Kahn's "I'm Every Woman" came on, so I hit the genius button.  The hits, as they say, kept coming and kept inspiring.  Imagine Dragons "Fallen" and Guster's "Do You Love Me" set an up tempo beat for me.  But a few songs later came something a bit mellower but even more inspiration pumping for me: Matisyahu's "Exaltation:"

"Performing mighty deeds and making new things, sowing righteousness and creating healing
He spoke, the world came into being, Master of praise renews each day....."

There I am with a few hundred sweaty friendly folks performing a mighty deed, we are treating our bodies like temple instead of a tent honoring our abilities and encouraging others to honor their abilities as well.  As the song says, we are building back the temple one brick at a time.  Each time someone lifts a foot to go up a stair when their legs feel like jelly, each time someone gets out of bed instead of hitting snooze and rolling over to go back to sleep.

It doesn't just happen in Harvard Stadium.  I witnessed it all the way home when I saw cyclists out in the early morning or runners with easy strides and joggers laboring for the next step before slowing to a walk.  

My reward is that I get sweaty bro hugs for a few more weeks before life takes over again.  Perhaps I can find some folks that will meet up with me in the afternoons/early evening to attack the stadium when September rolls around.  Maybe I'll find some folks to show up locally and climb the bleachers at the local little league fields.  I don't know but I know I don't want this feeling to ever go away again.