My son Steve came to visit recently and was all fired up to run and since it’s winter and the roads are generally lumpy with snow and ice, we drive to the nearby Rec Center where he runs and I walk as fast as I can.
We do this around 7:15 each morning.
The track is marked for walkers as well as people who switch between walking and jogging, and the two outside lanes are for the runners. I use the lane marked “slow”, not to be confused with the slowest lane marked “walk.”
There is an ice rink in the middle of this complex and lots and lots of seats. The track is located above the seats and you have to climb 28 stairs to reach it. Twenty-eight stairs. Dear god. That doesn’t even count as part of the workout either.
I used to take those stairs two at a time. When I tried it on my recent return it’s lucky I didn’t break every bone and muscle in my body. Now I’m a one-step-at-a-time person.
Sensible people warm up first. I shake my ankles and get going.
Personally I admire the guts of the woman who leans against the wall by the elevator and does nothing but stretches, and then she goes home.
Then there’s a man about 55, runs like a maniac, then shudders to a halt and hurls himself up and down the 28 steps. When that doesn’t seem enough, he gets out this short hockey stick and he maniacally pushes little balls back and forth on the floor in a confined space.
A type A if ever I saw one.
Some people meet friends there and clog the lanes while they stroll and chat. I figure it’s good for their mental health if nothing else.
My personal goal is to walk as fast as I can around the track at least eight times but trying for ten. I should be puffing when I finish.
If I died tomorrow, or better still, on the track so my kids would be impressed, the general consensus would be that I’d lived a full life, so why do I do this?
Because now I can have my whopper junior with cheese every day for lunch and my conscience is relatively clear.
3 comments:
I just like it for the structure it gives us first thing in the morning. That and the glass of orange juice make my day.
I can see the bumper sticker now: I powerwalk for burgers. You could be onto something there....
Oh come now! Those steps do indeed count! ;-)
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