Feeling the Weekend!

Oh boy. I don't often play the age card.....as a 40 year old woman who completely changed her life and body, it doesn't usually fly with me when people tell me they are too old to get fit, or lose weight.....blah, blah, blah.

However.....that being said....I am feeling 44-1/2 today. Seriously. It seems like the harder I push myself physically, yes, I can do it, but boy, do I pay for it the next day! I think the hardest part of the weekend was the run....

Saturday Cassie and I participated in the 2nd Annual Oktoberun in Redwood City. All the money goes to the RWC school district, and directly to our schools. We did it last year, and I sense a tradition in the making. It was a great day, as last year, there were 700+ registrants and this year? 1800!!! I absolutely LOVE the atmosphere on a race day. Every race I've run gives me goosebumps in the minutes before the start. Hoover had a good size team, I think the biggest represented by one of the schools. We had teachers, our principal, parents and students. To run alongside a first grade and third grade student I know, with their moms, was incredible. Especially now that we are beginning a serious health and wellness movement at my school. In our poor, heavily Latino community, awareness is key and we received a grant that gave scholarships to families to participate Saturday. We are offering Zumba classes (I know, I know, but it gets them in the door and moving) and we are all getting pedometers and starting walking clubs at school. I am excited to do my part, and most of the teachers that ran the race were upper grade but these students know me and the expressions on their little faces as we ran together and high-fived each other.....then to see them and their moms at school today....just a new relationship in the making. Good freaking stuff.

Cassie was amazing. She moaned and groaned for 3 blocks or so, about being tired, her legs hurt. Then an amazing thing happened - she looked at people running, walking and jogging past us....then looked behind us and saw that there were not a lot of people there. She looked at me and said "Mom, can we run, please?" Uh, hello? OF COURSE! Then throughout the rest of the race, we would stop and walk here and there, and she kept pushing me and herself - "Come on, mom, let's run!" or "We'll walk when we get to the corner." Again, the thrill of hearing our names as we ran across the finish line.....I love sharing this with her. She asked me later on, as we watched the first of the half marathoners cross the finish line, "How many laps is a half marathon?" I told her that 13 miles was 52 laps. She looked at me and said she would never run a half marathon! I looked at her and told her that when she got older, if she ever wanted to run a half, that I would happily train for and run one with her. The look on her face.....I think she actually considered it. In her 7 year old mind.

A  highlight of the run was running past a couple and the guy said "I told you it was HER!" and found a longtime member from PAC that I haven't seen in over 6 months. His partner said "He told me that you are his favorite BodyPump instructor!" He moved to San Jose and hasn't made it up to my Saturday class, but his fiancee is the new Vice Principal at one of our schools and that's why they were running in the race! We chatted, he said how much he misses my classes but when I told him that he could join the 24HF Super Sports in his area and get both BP and Combat, his two favorite classes, he was super excited. It was nice to see him and make the connection with his fiancee.


We went home to rest a bit before I had to leave to teach BodyPump at PAC. Class was good, although my legs were absolute TOAST by the end, after all the squats, lunges and jump squats! Then Cassie and I ran off to a birthday party. At the party, I walked by two female clowns (actual clowns there for entertainment!) and one of them stopped me and said - "Don't you teach BodyPump at PAC?" Turns out she comes to my class, but I didn't recognize her because of the wig and makeup! Her clown partner told me her mom comes to my classes. I was struck by the power of what I do in that one hour each week.....making an impression on people without ever realizing it. The reminder was awesome.

Sunday, I woke up with sore ankles, and my hamstrings? OMG. Running on pavement.....haven't done that in ages and I felt it. Taught BodyPump again and it was a great class. Felt better afterward. Headed to San Mateo to teach BodyFlow, and while I felt pretty good at the end, I was definitely tired. But was my day over? Nope. Had committed to stay and do GRIT, which is the new LM program - 30 minutes, High Intensity Interval Training. I've done it twice before, with Alex as the instructor and it seriously kicked my butt. I've done the cardio format and the strength (barbell) format. This time we were doing strength with Johnny, a new instructor, video taping the class. Tough stuff, but I went light on my weights because I was tired but it didn't matter. There is sprinting in the warm up, burpees, pushups, squats...a lot of bodyweight work that you just can't get around.

So today I woke up.....and the tops of my feet are sore, my ankles, hamstrings, shoulders, obliques......all good, really, but I feel my age. My hip has been bugging me, along with tight quads. Went to the chiropractor for an adjustment but what I really need is a massage - thankfully I have one scheduled for this Friday!

Although I am sore, and old, I can't help but really enjoy weekends like this. Where I push myself physically, mentally, and survive. I remember years ago when I suffered from my thyroid disease, and how physically weak I always was. Today I rotated my arm inward and happened to be feeling the back of that arm with my other hand and was shocked to feel how hard my tricep muscle was. I wasn't voluntarily flexing, and it was THERE. 4 years ago, I couldn't do a push up if my life depended on it. I couldn't do 5 lunges. Now I am jump squatting. I am proof that it can be done. It takes time, commitment, dedication, but most of all, the desire to change, and the willingness to accept no excuses, from others or from yourself. It's not easy. Far from it. But impossible?

The word says "I'm Possible". No excuses.