Days 109-111: Sweating Through The Pain

Day 109: On Friday morning my friend Jenny and I went for a three-mile walk in Washington Park.  I had planned it to be an easy day of working out since the rest of the weekend was going to be packed with high intensity workouts.  Unfortunately, I ended up catching a bug that knocked me out the rest of the day on Friday and all day on Saturday.  My friendly friday walk was the last amount of big movements I’d be making for the next 48 hours.

Day 110:  I read recently that people who consistently workout average one cold a year and people who do not workout consistently average four colds per year.  Since I am now characterized as a person who works out frequently, I knew that there was a chance of sickness at some point during this challenge.  This was my time.  Friday night I could barely swallow and my head was pounding.  Saturday morning it became apparent that sweating was going to be a painful challenge.

Thankfully, I have a fiance who held me accountable.  We got super bundled up and went for a twenty-minute walk around the lake at Washington Park.  He even held my arm the entire time because I felt super weak.  Do you remember that entire lazy body feeling you would get when you were a teenager and your parents would ask you to do something and it felt like your muscles couldn’t physically move?  That’s what I felt like all day yesterday.  Hence the need to lean on someone during a walk.

Day 111:  Today I woke up feeling a little better, but still not fantastic.  I knew I was going to have to take it easy again.  Mike planned out a hike for us at Red Rocks that was 3.3 miles with a 600 foot elevation gain.  That sounded doable to me if we took it slow.  Fortunately the breath-taking views kept my mind occupied from the pain in my throat.  The trail ended up getting really icy in spots, which naturally slowed us down- which made my achy body happy.  Overall, it took us 80 minutes and we came straight home to relax right after.  I am really hoping that my body decides to continue to heal after small gentle sweats all weekend.  Here’s to finding out if workouts can lead to a cure.

Day 50: A Walk in the Woods

Today I went hiking in Boulder with my friend Devon.  She was one of those people that I instantly connected with the first time that I met her a few months ago.  Her love for life is overwhelming contagious and she has a sense of adventure that is so much fun to be around.  Finding friends like her make moving seem like an easy thing to do!

Before we started off on the trail we walked into the information station at the bottom of Chataqua Park for guidance.  My Indiana University sweatshirt was greeted with a cheerful, “hello, fellow Hoosier!” and a story about the cheery parks’ man living in a teepee outside of IU for his senior year in college.  I bet he has crazier stories than Harry Caray!   Since the winds in Boulder were ridiculous today he showed us a trail that might block some of the wind and also be scenic.  We ended up hiking a little over three miles and took lots of fun pictures along the way.    I am still baffled by the lack of snow in the foothills and the exceptionally warm days as we head into December.

I am definitely not complaining, I am just hoping this is not going to affect the ski days that will (hopefully) take up lots of my workout days!  Bring on the snow dance….