For one, it's FUN. Once a person has passed that threshold of unfit to fit, from out of shape to in shape, the distances, the workouts, the activity is FUN. We went out on a Christmas Day run for the first time in our workout history. What a blast. We ran the State Park loop (about 2.5 miles), busting through drifts and burning off the holiday energy that had built up after days of cold-weather-induced internment with the three blessings at home.
It's social. We have the blessing of having several people around us who enjoy the same activities. They like to bike (obnoxious amounts of) miles. They enjoy running (for an hour or more). They voluntarily swim ( lap after lap). Sometimes they do these activities solo, but often they log miles or laps together, pushing each other and smiling along the way, because sometimes a burning chest and pumping heart just feels better with someone else enjoying the misery.
It's a whole new way to see the world. God made this incredible world, and when we ride bike or run, He shows us things we'd never seen if we sat on a couch or even just rode in the car from one place to the next. We have this cache of "war stories" in a way that prove this theory repeatedly. There's the day that Jason almost hit a deer . . . with his bike. Then there's the time that Jason and two his running buddies helped push a car out of the snow in the local State Park. There's the evening my friend Christine and I were almost hit by another cyclist riding on the left side of the road. He rode right in between us. There's the one summer night that my friend Lori almost hit a skunk with her bike or the early summer morning that I saw one waddle back into its den. We see beautiful sunrises, colorful leaves, and frosty trees. We hear the thump of our feet on pavement, the crunch of snow, and the crackle of dry leaves on the trail. We see, hear, smell, and just experience life in a way different than if we had never laced up our shoes or pumped up our tires.
It's an adventure. While we'd like to think that every workout is a predictable one, it's not. Fitness allows us to tackle new adventures we never would've dreamed of. And it allows us to dream big too. Take our friend Mathew, for example.
He's a former Marine who moved back to good old Madison, SD after spending much of his tenure in Southern California. He lives to cycle. And he discovered that the cold weather doesn't have to stop him from finding a new adventure, thanks to the invention of fat-tire bikes. Mathew inspires us all to be a little more crazy dedicated.
It's an accomplishment. We have an entire wall in the basement dedicated to what we've spent the last few years doing. The pictures, the bibs, the medals--they're all these fantastic memories of what we have been blessed to have accomplished.
With the new year quickly approaching, we Troxells have a few resolutions to implement as we continue in the crazy. The payoff is worth the sacrifice. Stay tuned for Operation Nooga Nutrition.
The boring updates: we both continue with our regular workouts. This week we had a first: a swim date. We had a sitter come over the day after Christmas and watch the kids for an hour and a half while we swam. The conclusion: we need to do that more often. We also, for the first time, went on a Christmas Day run. The weather was just too perfect to NOT go for a run. We've both begun to increase our runs this week, and we'll fall into a structured schedule on January 1. I think we're both pretty stoked for the structure.
No comments:
Post a Comment