I Slept In Today

On April 13 at 8:41 pm my 2008 race season came to a close. My next race on the docket is scheduled for September 2009.

That makes me happy.

I slept in today. Woke up at 6:30. (OK, shut up. When you're used to waking up far before the sun stretches it's rays, 6:30 is considered "sleeping in".) After doing a crossword puzzle in bed, having some breakfast and watching a bit of Sports Center, I meandered on down to the gym.

When you check in at the front desk of my YMCA they hand you a workout towel. I decided not to take one this morning. I wasn't planning on sweating.

I walked upstairs and hoisted my leg over the Lifecycle. After thousands of miles sitting on a carbon-coated piece of plywood and making believe it felt good because everybody told me it was a nice saddle, I forgot how cushy and cumfy these Lifecycle seats actually are. It was like I just died and went to tushy heaven. My butt was as happy as....well.... as happy as a butt on an uber-cushy Lifecycle seat.

I piddled around on the stationary cycle for awhile, or, rather, until I finished reading this fascinating article in Sports Illustrated about golfing and animals and the ridiculous things that happen when the two of them meet. I won't try to explain it to you because you won't care.

After finishing the magazine, I hopped off my tushy heaven and proceeded to get myself tangled in some apparently quite complex weight lifting machines. There were levers and pegs and rotators and axles and none of it made any sense. There were pads in places that didn't seem to touch my body and bare metal bars sticking up into places I sure wish had pads. I studied the little instructional sticker on the side of the machines but the silly drawings just made it seem like a very dangerous game of Twister.

I decided to go into the free weights room since I didn't need any instructional manual on how to lift a bar above my head. I put some embarrassingly light weights on the bench press bar, laid on my back and huffed out 12 reps. As I put the bar back on the bar holder thingy I felt a twinge in my upper back. I tried to sit up but it hurt like all heck. Oops. I suppose I shouldn't push it so I put the weights back and went into the stretching room.

I grabbed the big exercise ball and laid down on it. It did nothing for my upper back but it felt really good and super relaxing so I decided to close my eyes and stay there for awhile. I started thinking about what I was going to eat for lunch. Barbecue chicken salad sounded good. I wondered how the chickens lived, whether they were free range or caged. I tried to imagine what it was like to be a chicken. I wondered what they thought about. And through some randomly circuitous route that I can't quite remember, I started imagining I was laying in a tub of warm water. That's about when I started dozing off.

I woke up just as I rolled off the exercise ball onto the mat.

I lay there for awhile pretending as if I intended to roll onto the mat. Then I picked up my magazine and left the gym.

Another great workout.

Only sixteen more months until the big race.