Of Aches and Aging

I ache today. I am tired and achey but it's a "good ache" ... I think.

I've been going to the gym lately; I finally sucked it up last month and forked over the cash for a membership on campus. (It's dirt cheap -- especially compared to health clubs or even rec centres -- it works out to about two bucks a week.) I've been going a couple of times a week with a co-worker, doing about 20 minutes of cardio plus 20 minutes of weight training in the weeeeee hours of the morning (i.e. before 8 a.m.) I've also been walking (semi-regular "walkies" around the Ring Road with another coworker, plus walking elsewhere and, yes, I do count my wanderings with camera-in-hand). Since I finally replaced my VHS Kripalu Yoga "Gentle" program with the DVD version, I have also managed to work in a session or two of yoga.

The strangest revelation to me out of this recent round of fitness is that despite not being a "morning person" it seems that morning really is the best time for me to exercise.

So why all this now? A couple of years ago, I made myself the goal of being "fit by forty" but now that I am staring down my 39th birthday, that long term goal seems pretty short-term... and I am far from fit. Sure, I got derailed last year with the whole ankle-breaking nonsense, but I still maintain that the regular walking I had been doing prior to the accident helped me to heal as well as I have, and recognizing that made me more eager to embrace the idea of regular exercise for the rest of my body, lest anything else get broken (touch wood).

So, I will continue to make every effort to work all the parts of my body that don't get worked while I sit at my desk, and we'll see if I am any less achey a year from now.