Woah. Where'd that chub come from!?

I went to the gym today. For the first time in a long long time.

Since I hadn't been going, I cancelled my membership in order to be good and put that $65 per month towards my credit card debt. But now, just as promised by Iron Veterans, Christmas hits and the post-race chub arrives. I hadn't seen it. Even on Christmas I didn't notice it. But in the locker room today, with my swim suit on for the first time in months, it was there. A lot of it. My ass had grown and the suit definitely didn't fit like it should. The new bra I just got - even though its the same size as all the others - was too small. Luckily most of my clothes still fit wonderfully, but I can just tell that the rental of my Ironman body had definitely been returned. As it probably should have since I had been seriously enjoying my time off. Rest and recovery is a vital part of the process. You can't get in shape if you don't get out of shape, and I was really enjoying getting out of shape. Until the last few days... I was so restless and frustrated and pent up that I knew I had to get out and be active. Do something. Anything. Just get the heart rate up and the body moving. So I took Pete for a short run. And I thought, hey its 35 degrees, thats not bad for late December and even though there is 6 inches of snow on the ground, I don't need gloves. HA. That was a lie. My run, though wonderful, was cut short. And I knew I had to get back inside so I could get some activity and exercise.

I remembered the 14-day pass to the local YMCA that I had recently gotten in the mail, and as I shopped around online for local gyms, I figured I might as well try them out since most will give a free week to test drive the place. So today, it began.

After a quick tour of the REEEEEALLY OLD YMCA in Prairie Village, I hit the weight room for some squats, push presses, bench presses and more squats.Wow. My knees really aren't diggin the squats. So onto the other weight room with the machines to do some ab- and ad-ductor reps. Throw in a few bosu hammy curls and then back to the locker room to suit up. I haven't been in the water since Lake Monona and Ironman. My swim cap and goggles were still covered in lake gunk and sand and dirt and  muck. But the water was warm so I started to enjoy getting my stroke back. I don't think I made it a full 100m when I was tired and a little sore, my triceps not enjoying the pull that they had happily missed. The fins made kick drills pretty fun and I had forgotten how deep water (10ft at one end) makes swimming that much harder. Though I didn't count, I'm sure I swam less than 1000m and by then I was done.

I realized during and post-workout how much I miss it. I need to get myself back in the swing of exercising and enjoying everything my body can do. Work on my flexibility, strength, speed... and enjoy the aches and pains that come with training. Let's add that to the Goal List.