I am pretty sure there is not a person in my circle of life who has not expressed a certain level of discontent with their current fitness level after the past few months of some pretty significant stress and quarantine.
As a teacher who easily clocks 4-6 miles a day at work in dress shoes, I was not able to make that up in a distance learning environment, even walking 2-4 miles a day and trying to add another mile or two in between the morning and afternoon sessions by walking to the neighborhood pool. As a former athlete, once in the absolute peak of physical fitness, with 2-3 hours daily in the gym as part of my life, it’s never enough anyway. 25 years and five kids later; I still need to lose 50 pounds. I keep trying.
The outdoor school facilities are open again. For months they were closed and in some neighboring counties, “No Trespassing” signs were placed at all entrances to the school campus. The “No Trespassing” signs hit the hardest, I think, of the current reality of a global pandemic and stay at home orders issued by the Governor.
There was an unspeakable peace and comfort in finding the facilities open again as the state enters into another phase toward re-opening. Something moving us toward “normal” for the first time in months; even as you can now observe people enjoying an outside meal in town at local restaurants.
Today was the first opportunity to park my car in what remains of the parking lot of the local high school under renovation, make my way over to the football stadium and stand at the bottom of the home bleachers, in all their glory, in the rain. Dangerous work, running bleachers in the rain. At my age, you might just slip and fall and break a bone. Not worth that risk. So, instead of running them, I just walked them. Up and down. Completely sucking wind at the top, but refusing to give up.
Why do I love this workout so much. I love it because I am blessed and thankful to still be able to do it, even in a modified way, some 32 years after we were once required to do it as part of old school P.E. in high school in the 1980’s and then later, as a preferred personal training strategy for all kinds of sports.
Yeah, I’m a little slower now and a little more apprehensive on the way down. I used to run across the top from staircase to staircase, but I don’t like the heights anymore. It makes me nervous just like riding in an elevator, even with the 4 foot high fence of protection at the top. I don’t trust that fence. Ha.
Now, it’s just up and down the same row…complete the pass to the next row across the ground level.
There is a comforting cadence to bleacher running… or bleacher walking as the case today. Maybe even “trudge” fits the bill. “Trudge” was a vocabulary word we tackled in one of my distance learning reading groups just a few weeks ago. Everyone out of your seats! Show me what it means to trudge through the deep snow. They did it.
They will remember that word. Trudge.
You can count the steps in your head or you can complete them to music. Either way, while you might want to throw up at the end, the view from the top is beautiful. The feeling from the top, each time you ascend: equally beautiful.
Today it was raining which holds a beauty and peace of its’ own, but there are days in the summer, if you get there early enough, you can watch the sun rise; the early morning rays hitting the bleachers with such precision it feels like a rainbow you can reach out and literally touch.
It’s so easy to train your eye on the top and think, oh, I’ll never make it. Too old. Too out of shape. Forget it. I’ll just go home now. Back to bed, pull up the covers and just pretend this never happened.
Or. I can take one step at a time. One after the other, and know I would rather be out there trying in the rain and giving it my best, than not.
Just like life right now in still uncertain times.
Running bleachers. Not exactly running them today, but give me a few weeks and I’ll find my way.