A different kind of exercise

Yesterday, I decided "to hell with you, gym.". This is the time of the year in Tucson when you can actually spend time outside, and you won't fear for your health. (i.e. dying of dehydration or severe sunburn)

So when I wanted to get some exercise, I drove to the gym, pulled into a parking lot FULL of Massechusetts license plantes, and said "Yep. It must be Senior Citizen exercise hour", and looked at the crowds indoors , (Oh, snowbird season, I love you....) ....

And so I said, "To hell with this..."

And drove 1 mile north to a park called "Riverfront Park".

Now, let's not be foolish, here. There's not really a river. There are no rivers in Tucson. But there's a "wash" that as once a river in the ice ages. So they have built beautiful bridges and running trails along these washes.

I turned on my heart-rate-monitor and started jogging not knowing where I was going.

I haven't done this in............

.....I don't remember the last time I did this! Training for the marathon -- everything was VERY regimented. "Run 6 miles, every other mile sprinted......Run 8 miles, 5 of which will be tempo....Run 20 miles...Blah, blah. blah"

Yesterday I just laced up my shoes, enjoyed the mountains and ran for 45 minutes. It made me feel free.

Then, after my run -- I walked over to the soccer field at the park and startd to do good ole' plylometrics. I skipped up and down the field, did high-nees, karoke step (however you spell that), and sprints. I'm sure other spectators around the park thought I was a crazy woman.....

But after my work out, I realized this exerted me and gave me the best cardiovascular exercise I've had in a LONG TIME. Dare I say even more envigorating than running 20 miles? I think this is -- due to that fact that I didn't feel the need to be dragged home on a stretcher after my work out! I felt energized!

This reminded me that things don't always have to be so regimented and militant. Making workouts fun makes them go much faster! So as we are all attacking our New Years Resolutions...try to remember that exercise is fun!

It's what we loved to do as children way back when -- remember playing tag and running around in circles for hours?? That was hard work! But it was fun...because we weren't staring at the monotonous count-down timer on an eliptical machine!!!! We were just simply moving