Ass in chair, followed by feet on trail

[lagilman]

2700 new words, then the rain left, the sun came out, and I hauled myself out of the chair and went for my run. And I discovered that it's hit the time of year when I need to switch to an evening run... *sweats, collapses*  You people who don't get the natural wonder drug known as a runner's high - how the hell do you make yourself ever exercise?  If I didn't know that at some point my body would start feeling good.... nope.

On the plus side, since part of my run goes through wetlands, I got my fill of red-winged blackbirds today. Y'know how some things just always make you smile? That flash of yellow and red does it for me. No idea why.

And now...back to work.  Or a nap.  Napworking!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I don't get the running high per se, but I get a similar thing from mixed exercise.
And birds are very cheering.

[lagilman]

I get a bit of it from lifting weights, but it's not quite the same thing. About a third of the way through a run (or fast walk, depending on how my knees are doing) I get this "oh here's your cookie!" blast through my entire body. And it usually lasts for about half an hour after I stop.

(I suspect if I pushed harder, it would stop the moment I did, and owfuckow would take over. But I respect the knees, and don't push)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Knees should be respected. They take an age to recover, for one thing.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Problem knees are evil, evil, evil. After I blew mine out in ballet, I got the heart-to-heart from the PT folks which was, essentially--don't stop exercising. Period.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

I get the biggest buzz from skiing so far, or from riding horse over fences or really, really fast....so...

As I've gotten older and arthritic, certain forms of stretching-type exercises do give me a fast jolt of pain relief. But only certain things, and only for so long....and there's a crapton of other stuff I have to do first to make them work right.

I hurt when I do it, but I hurt less when I exercise than when I don't. It helps to have invested in a quality horse who is fun to work with instead of being scary, with just enough sting and opinion to make it fun. Then there's preliminary work I have to do so that I can help her through her ouchies (because she has her own issues to match mine)...and when I do my prelim work so that we can do her prelim work...the stuff we're shooting for is really, really fun and great for adrenaline bursts. Safe adrenaline bursts.

So I guess the best remedy is to pick really fun activities you want to do that require adequate conditioning prep to do them safely and enjoyably (and something with videos of people doing it really well and having fun doing it, too! Ski videos get me motivated, as do high-level reining stuff that I could no freakin' way ever do IRL. Look. I can't accurately count spins, and I hold my breath when we rocket out of the gate at lightspeed. Or even stuff like the mounted armor presentation from Amsterdam. I could see us doing mounted archery). It's easier to do the prep work if you can visualize the fun stuff.

However, that's what works for me. Otherwise, I'd be a slug. I think. Running never worked for me (and hey, I grew up in the land of Nike, Bill Bowerman and jogging, aka Eugene) because I kept getting hurt. My current pain issues can be tied to jogging injuries. But ballet (oops, more injuries) and riding horses (different injuries) and skiing all have proven to be decent motivators. And oh yeah, badminton. But I think competitive badminton is the cause of the current bursitis and achilles tendonitis.

Um. Maybe virtual exercisers are the better choice.

(And I do like activities that tend to lots of hard after-event parties. It was at a Eugene marathon that I saw the oldest female marathoner at the time, Mavis Lundgren, wandering around with a beer in her hand after her finish in under four hours...in her 80s. Yeah. ETA: And I still have the trophy planter that I won in badminton doubles when my partner deduced that nerves were interfering with my performance, and he drug me out behind the gym for a beer. And, ahem, other substances.).

[lagilman]

Back when I ran the Corporate Challenge, the mail room staff would have martinis (carefully disguised, of course, because we were on city property) waiting for us when we finished. That was a hell of a motivator...

But about 1/3 of the way through my routine, my body actually starts to feel good. Like I said, I know it's a gift. And combining that with the fact tat my brain works better when I exercise regularly, it's what gets me moving . Although Tricia Bray has a shirt that says "Bike to beer/beer to bike" or something similar, and I heartily endorse that, too.

I can't ski any more - not only is it too expensive a hobby, but the knee damage I took from varsity fencing is exactly the sort that skiing would only make worse. Running (I pulse between running and a fast-paced walk) makes it twinge, but not worsen, because I don't hold that lowered position for long periods. If I still had access, I'd be riding regularly, but there's only one stable left in the city (insurance issues) and they raised their fees to the point where it was either horses or travel, budget-wise. :-(

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

I'm fortunate in my location because a ski slope is just over an hour's drive away (and there's mass transit to the slope of sorts), and season passes are reasonable (will be more reasonable next year when I can buy a midweek pass that converts to spring all week in March). That plus a season that can stretch out over six months makes skiing pretty reasonable for me. Spend a couple of hours skiing, then curl up with the laptop in either the main lodge or the day lodge to get a day's writing in....

But I hear the knee thing big time. The running is right out for me due to foot and knee issues. High impact exercise is forbidden. Ballet is now forbidden due to hip issues. I got really, really lucky on the horse front and hooked up with a Big Name Clinician who was teaching community college classes, and ended up with this nice little mare (if you're in PDX for a con, perhaps you'd like to come visit? Phyl Radford's house isn't far from the barn). I can carefully do yoga, so...yeah. Finding activities that work is a challenge.

And I love the martinis at the end of the Corporate Challenge. Only way to go.