In The Summer Heat

Yesterday I ran midday, despite the heat. I was going up to Seattle that night so it was the only time I had free. I took the boys to the neighborhood park and I began running laps around it. The first fifteen minutes were hard. No pains or stitches or anything, just a general protest rising up from my whole body demanding to know, why? Why are we doing this? And will you please knock it off? I answered with a firm, No I will not. I reminded my body of how jumpy and anxious I would be if I didn’t get a run in. I told my body that it would feel better afterwards. I told it this was happening so accept it. My body eventually did accept what was happening and the protests ended, leaving me with a kind of buzzing glowing feeling in my legs.

However, after only twenty minutes I was pouring sweat. As I came around the corner to the playground part of the park where the boys were, I saw that they were utterly miserable. I paused and went to talk to them. They were hot. They were bored. I relented and said we could go home. Once home they perked right up and so I sent them upstairs to play with their newfound energy.

As the boys and I had been walking home I considered stopping my workout right then. I had put in the effort after all. It was hot. Inside would not be much better. I was off the hook, right? But my muscles were still glowing and my heart hadn’t slowed. My blood was roaring through my body in the most pleasant way. So I got on the treadmill. I ran. I felt strong. I felt powerful. I felt really good. I jogged for another thirty minutes rounding out my total work out time to an hour and was glad I had pushed myself to do it.

Workout Summary:

Outside:

36 minutes

2.44 miles

135 average bpm

1 minute peak heart rate zone

26 minutes cardio

9 minutes fat burn

Treadmill:

31 minutes

1.85 miles

133 average bpm

2 minutes peak

18 minutes cardio

11 minutes fat burn