Lifting and special feelings

Some time ago, along about May or June, I started showing up at Alan's house to fit in a few basement weightroom workouts. I've never been much of a fan of weights. I never finished a weight workout feeling great like I did after a run. The workouts always took a lot of time and even though I didn't know what results to expect I knew that I didn't want to be too muscular. The best way to avoid that was to avoid the whole scene, I decided. I tend to make sweeping decisions even when they don't make sense. Then in May or June, after many declined invitations I decided to head to the basement and workout again. I wouldn't do it four days a week, but maybe two and I'd see what happened. I found that working out with Alan and Jim was nice enough. It felt like we were struggling together, a bit like the old days on a high school cross country team. They were (and are) clearly stronger, but weights like running can be an individual pursuit with individual standards and improvement.

I stuck with my two or almost two days a week and mixed in Ultimate, bike riding, running, and the fun stuff I enjoyed. Much of my exercise was transit, but I was spending a lot of time exercising. This netted some pretty nifty previously chronicled results in a mile I ran in July and I knew that much of the credit belonged to the lifting I'd been doing. That motivated me to continue to keep up my efforts in the weightroom. Throughout the summer, my efforts remained consistent. Then, as luck or fate or something would have it, Alan and I became housemates. That put his superior collection of weightlifting paraphenilia in the garage, as in close enough to trip over. The excuses not to work out shrank significantly.

At first I thought the weights were too close to the television. I could feel myself being sucked in and away from working out, but as we got into our new routine, I found something had changed. I found that I wanted to work out. I found that when I didn't work out, I was disappointed. It was a familiar feeling that I get with running. Now, I find that I'm itching to workout when I'm sitting on the couch. I don't get the same satifisfaction from lifting that I get from running, but I get more than I thought possible. I know that the strength will contribute to my other goals, running goals, Ultimate goals, and my own well-being.

That's a pretty special feeling.