I HIT THE WALL

"Hitting the wall", when I was a Marathon runner was when my quadricep muscles turned into jello at around the 20 mile mark, in a 26.2 mile race...I knew it was no big deal, that I would push through it to the end of the race...that I wasn't going to die, and I kept on going until I hit the finish line...expressing my agony in the typical ways that marathon runners express their agony...with tears, salutes to dieties, tossing their cookies, going down to all fours with lower back muscles aching so badly, they feel like they have been hit by hammers...and writing run on sentences like this.

Well, I hit the wall with weight lifting...I overtrained, and kept on training, like a fool...So now my arthitic left wrist is aching, as is my left rotator cuff, and left tricep muscle...I knew I was going to get in trouble, because I have been waking up with soreness at night, and have been more grouchy than usual...We try to push through these things with catch phrases like, "stiff upper lip", "what don't kill yah will make yah stronger", etc. and so on. I say "bullroar" to all that claptrap...yet, I keep pushing on...what a fool I am.

So today, I went on the sissy machines...elliptical, treadmill, keeping my heart rate low, so as not to burn up any of my precious muscle...My obsessive/compulsive mind freaks me out as I look in the mirror...I see this skinny guy with no muscles...and shriek with terror!..."This is not reality", I say..."It's only a movie!"...Now as I sit and watch football, I fear the calories I ingest..."Will they go to fat or muscle?"...

Forget it...Tomorrow's another day...and hopefully, I will lift again...Now I recover from hitting the wall...and that means, rest, rest, and more rest...Amen.