Fitness routines: I have started and stopped and started again so many times.  I know what is coming

After that first workout, my muscles are sore.  It is a familiar tiredness, as though my body was saying “ah, I’ve missed this.” I wonder why I ever stopped running in the first place.

There is something about working up a good sweat – building up the internal body heat so that your shirt is soaked through – and then taking a long cooling shower.  It’s a deeper cleanliness than you get through your normal morning shower, as though your body were purging some inner junk.  It feels like renewal.

Again, why did I ever stop this?

I know why.  Life interrupts.  Other things, often good and life-affirming things, get in the way.  We humans crave variety.  I know what is coming.  At some point the luster will disappear; the body and the mind will grow weary of the exertion, of the sameness of training for a long run.  In my mind will hear a seductive soft voice whisper, “must we do this again?”

I know this is coming.

But not today.  Today is the first day back.

Today is a day for optimism and hope and opportunity.

Today is the first step toward a new goal.

I’ll be recording my running log in a new blog called “The Half Marathon Project” – this post is a sample of the type of reflections I’ll be offering there.