Objection Overruled

Phoenix
High of 97

Yesterday morning in CA I again awoke before the dawn and did 3.5 miles on the treadmill, running about .6 of it. I finished my corporate meetings and boarded the plane back from Burbank to Phoenix, arriving at 9PM.

Today I got up at 6AM, saw the grandtwins off to school, and watch some of the 9-11 memorials on television. Still, very sad. Sadder still how many people have stopped posting old glory at their homes, compared to 7 years ago.

I did some stretching and set out for my workout. About 1 mile into the loop, the front of my left ankle was crying out in pain. I thought it was just unstretched ligaments but I was disappointed in that I intended to have a great workout. I continued my route and was almost limping with my left leg. I remembered my nephew telling me to listen to my body and not ignore it, but somehow I thought this was just a result of either poor post stretching yesterday or poor pre-stretching today. Several times I would stop and stick my left leg behind me, point my toe backward and stretch that front ankle. The pain of the stretch told me this was the problem. I completed the 2.2 mile loop in about 45 minutes (with my stops). I went back to the house and immediately got down and started stretching that left ankle. I stuck my shoe under the sofa and slowly forced the ligaments open to a wide stretch, toes pointed away from me. Hurts so good. I alternated between this and then, using a towel for leverage, pulled my toes toward me to stretch the other way. I didn't know what the hell I was doing but it seemed to work. I did this for about 20 minutes and dang if I didn't feel ready to get back out there. This was the 6th day in a row of my workout and I didn't want to end the week like this. I set out again and told myself if it hurt, I would listen to my body like Chris said and turn back. It was okay. I maintained a nice aerobic pace for another 1.4 miles, working up a good sweat and heartrate, then focused on a light jogging pace. Without my MP3 player, I had to listen to music in my head. I chose Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" to get me going. I maintained a nice 4-5MPH pace for the last .8 miles to the house and broke into a huge grin at my accomplishment. I did an extra lap around Heather's house for a good cool down.

My body had a little bump in the road and my fat brain tried to object to today's workout. My heart overruled the objection and won out. This was a good day. The old me would have tried to find a way to get out of working out today. I think I'm onto something here.