The Good News About Getting Out of Shape

A month in Bhutan with no bike, a running injury and a lot of excuses, left me back in CA in the worst shape that I can remember. Even if I am not training for an event or big (or small) adventure, I always train—for life. I enjoy swimming, biking, running, hiking, strength training and yoga while mixing in a couple other activities as desired. My body likes to cross train and even after all these years, I thrive on my activity time each day.

So though I’m approaching 55, I haven’t known what it feels like to be in my 50’s and be totally out of shape. Now I know that it really really sucks.

What I have known is that throughout my life, the more I train, the better I tend to feel, unless I am training for an ultra-event. Putting in big loads of training for an ultra can leave us frequently fatigued because the big loads we need to pull off events such as the ones I highlight in my book Dirty Inspirations, are not set up to cause us to feel our best until we taper or rest for a race. Doing (relatively) moderate training does, so most of the time, with the exception of long training days, I tend to feel strong with a lot of energy and ready to happily hit the pillow at the end of the day for a great nights sleep.

For example, when training for Tour of the Dragon, a 160 mile mountain bike ride in Bhutan last year I felt pretty solid throughout. The long ride days spending 10+ hours in the saddle were fatiguing and I didn’t want to do much of anything the rest of the day (which is unusual for me). But most of the rest of my training was moderate (for me) so I felt strong and my body was happy.

The first couple weeks home from Bhutan this past March before settling back into my workout routine, I woke with a back ache, and things went down hill from there as I felt much weaker than usual and got more tired part way through the day. My entire being felt out of sorts. I remember thinking, “So this is how unfit almost-55 year old women feel!” Yikes!

The good news is this: I am now certain that I have no interest in feeling like unfit 55 year old women feel and that the next time I am faced with minimal workout options, I’ll find a way to create them. I am quite aware how to do this, in Bhutan this time around, I let myself get unmotivated. My bout of unfitness was an excellent reminder not to go there again and hopefully motivation for those of you working on getting yourself out the door this spring. YOU WILL FEEL AMAZINGLY BETTER! Training is energizing and sets you up to be your best you.

The other good news is that I have a much greater appreciation as to the

benefits of being a fit, strong woman  and the work I put in to make that happen—I get to do my life the way I love. One day that could change up, but for now I will be grateful for each day I get to breath hard, sweat and pick up heavy objects, as these coveted activities let me move through the world the way I love most…

which leads me to my next adventure…

Stay tuned!

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