Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Remember to Enjoy Your Workouts!

I’ve had two reminders to be grateful for workouts this week. Literally. “This here pool is a blessing to be grateful for,” said AdMo-Pool-Lady-Judy this morning. 

Yesterday I had a similar reminder. After a pool run on Capitol Hill,  I overheard two older women chatting in the locker room. One (let’s call her Wig-Lady) was asking how the other was doing. “I’m just so grateful to be swimming,” the friend responded. 


“Yes,” Wig-Lady nodded sagely. “It is a blessing.”

And then as I left the locker room she smiled at me, “You have a blessed day now Sweetheart!”

Awww thanks! And I did have a good Monday!

(Sidenote: Nice older women are the only people allowed to call me 'Sweetheart.')

This morning I arrive at the AdMo pool, just doing my thing, and started running (in the water, obviously). An older woman was treading water in the deep end and as I approached her she called out, “What you so serious for? You look like someone’s punishing you! Just getting it done, tsk-tsk. Uh-uh, you gotta enjoy it! We gotta be grateful that we’re here!”

That shook me – she’s so right! I went to the pool thinking, 60 minutes, just get it done. Not in a miserable way, but definitely not in a fun way either. And two reminders in as many days - that's got to mean something, right?

Her name is Judy, and she explained that she treads water for 2 hours a day to stay healthy…then spent the next 60 minutes giving me dating advice and telling me about her sex life (Haha! Seriously. I was a captive audience, literally, and desperate for entertainment).  

And both women are right – whether running or pooling or cross-training or whatever, it’s easy to sometimes forget that this is what we do for fun. Instead of worrying about getting the X number of minutes/miles/laps/etc. in before work, we should focus on enjoying it! 

Sorry to get all philosophical on you, but as I left this morning and Judy, just like Wig-Lady, told me to have “a blessed day, enjoy it!” I thought alright, I will!

For more about running for happiness, read this post. 
Also, I love this post I write a while ago about The Best Feeling in the World.