Aches and pains

I woke up with sheer excitement, happiness and energy following yesterday's great run. I took a moment to take it all in, breathing in, exhaling with joy, and proceeded to take a leap of faith off my bed to welcome a new day full of opportunity. My leg swung over the ledge of the bed, touched the floor and then...the pain! One step forward, ouch, one more, ouch, and so began my slow descent down the stairs. I think I was more gracious walking at 9 months pregnant than I was today going down those stairs. But the pain only means that my body is working, so I decided to suck it up, and pretend nothing was wrong with me at all.

I could have fooled everyone too if it weren't for the uncontrollable cursing that came out frequently during the day. Tyler made fun of me in the nice, loving way that he does, theorizing that the only reason I cursed was to get attention. As if.....But no, the cursing was just a primal response to the aches and pain. I got to know a whole new set of muscles I never had awareness of before.

I was actually pretty happy to feel the aches and pain. It was sure proof of my body working and it felt great. Parts of me probably did want somebody to come up to me and say "Geez woman, you're walking all crooked-like, are you ok?" just so I could scream to the World: "That's cause I just ran 12 km, ya all!!!"

Now most reasonable people would probably just take a day off, stretch on the couch, watch the Olympic athletes do all the work for a change, but not me. Instead, I decided that the only way to cure the pain was to give my body...more pain. Logical isn't it?

I had been wanting to try a Hot Power Yoga class for some times now and had always found a good reason to wuss out. But because I'm now determined to face my fears, I just said that there would be no excuses today. I also thought that practicing yoga in a hot room would actually help my muscles stretch and my body feel better.

I have practiced yoga sporadically over the years, but have been wanting to get back into it regularly, hoping the benefits of yoga would help me manage my anxiety. Tonight's class was incredible. My body responded to the majority of the poses and it made me feel strong. I was worried about sweating in the hot room, but it was actually a great feeling and made the whole class seem even more of a workout. By the end of the one hour class, I was beyond happy.

Of course, 10 minutes later, my body reminded me that it's still a work in progress as new sets of muscles awakened and started aching in other places I didn't know existed. I might be walking crooked and cursing a lot, but trust me, right now, I wouldn't trade the aches and pain for nothing.

Tomorrow is a day of running. I look forward to seeing what I can do.