"Camp Sporty" Revisited

Today I got up nice and early.  Actually, I woke up so many times during the night.  The great news is that I’m not waking up every time I roll over or just because everything H-U-R-T-S…  This time I awoke because I could hardly wait to get on with my day!  Yeah for me!!

I ate a good (uuuhhh…delicious, nutritious, hearty) breakfast as well as schlucking down a bunch of coffee.  A gleeful heart should always be fueled with a little extra caffeine, you know.  I took the short drive out to…

Athletes Performance Phoenix!  After spending a couple of weeks at their Pensacola/Gulf Breeze facility in December, I know I’ll never go anywhere else for “professional help” again.  OK, that’s not entirely true, but I really love this place.  While only a handful of us were training in December, a great number of athletes were in training now.  Football players were on the field, baseballs were flying, a good number of Asian men were holding weight plates for some reason unknown to me, and everyone seemed to have a huge protein shake and a handful of supplements.  (At one point I couldn’t find where I was going and some very large man told me to follow him.  I obliged, of course, feeling like a dwarf.)  The place is cool, way cooler and larger than the original site they opened in Tempe ten years ago. 

I was here to run.  I have been holding off on running because I don’t feel quite “right” yet.  I’m not fully rehab-ed, I’m not strong enough, and I’m not quite structurally balanced.  Yet, while in Phoenix I wanted a valuable professional evaluation and updated plan.  So I ran.  I ran on the Woodway treadmill.  Then I ran on the new updated non-motorized arc-shaped Woodway.  Then I ran on the Woodway in “dynamic” mode.  Then I ran on the harnessed Wooday.  That’s a lot of treadmills, you know!  Then I walked, exercised, walked some more…and got the verdict:

I’M NOT READY TO RUN…YET.  Bummer.  Boo for me. 

But…I have a new checklist and a new plan.  It will happen.  Once again, AP is leaving me hopeful and happy.  I am determined to make that “comeback” (read: come   back) to triathlon.

Today I got the butt-kicking I was looking for.  I then used my Ford Focus to set my sites on Sedona.  Tomorrow, the yin to my yang.  Until then, Cheers!