It's Nice To Be Missed

Snow storms, sadists at the school board with the liberal interpretation and use of the school cancellation policy, gnarly roads, pulled muscles and the plague have all played a part in keeping me away from the gym for far too long. After three weeks away, I made it back this morning. It felt so nice to be there, breaking a sweat and seeing familiar faces. I missed sweat dripping from my elbows, my favorite classes and my shower shoes. Wait...scratch that last one. When you shower at the gym, shower shoes are imperative. Not at all lovely, but entirely necessary. For the past 4 1/2 years of my life, I've spent 4-5 (sometimes 6) days a week at the gym; to say it's a mainstay in my life, would be the ultimate understatement. It's my entertainment and my sanity. Given this fact, one would wonder why my caboose is still so ample. Perhaps I take "refueling" a little to seriously, no?

Ahem.
I must admit, I was kind of surprised when so many of the ladies in my class came up to me and said they were worried about my long absence.

It's nice to be missed.

I've always considered myself an "under the radar" kind of person. I'm not particularly loud and I don't have a strong personality in a large group setting, so I was kind of surprised that my absence was noted. One lady even said my arms looked slimmer. That is by far the best thing anyone could possibly say to someone who hasn't exercised in three weeks.
It must have been all the snow shoveling!

I felt nicely recharged after today's gym trip. And dare I say it, in a good mood, to boot.

Although, I seem to have picked up another injury, with an unknown cause, sometime last week. My forearm is sore and it hurts to turn the door knob. My arm had been feeling better, but once we started working our biceps, it was screaming. No bueno!

I thought three weeks off would work wonders for all of my ailments.
Um, I thought wrong.
Or perhaps I'm just getting older and therefore unable to bounce back as quickly. Sigh, I find this so very depressing.

My legs were tight after running, which resulted in the use of this torturous piece of foam.

(source)

It looks innocent enough, doesn't it? It's a piece of foam, for crying out loud. How much pain could a cylindrical piece of foam inflict?

Well, let me tell you.... a lot.

I believe the term is "hurts so good."

I stretched and rolled the area from the top of my hip to my knee. Judging by the amount of pain this caused my tight muscles, I'm now aware that I need to perform that stretch more often.

It seems that the best things for you are often the ones that are least enjoyable. I'd give you another example, using the sinus rinse my doctor prescribed last week, but I'll spare you the details. Trust me, you'd much rather hear about sweat and shower shoes than how to rinse your sinuses.

It ain't pretty.

So now that I've sufficiently defiled my blog by talking about shower shoes and sinus rinses AND bored you to tears with my gym babble, I should probably just stop typing. I'd say I should quit while I'm ahead, but we all know I'm somewhere very, VERY far from being ahead.