ENDORPHINS: Gotta Love em'

Dan has been bugging me to get the the gym. I haven't had much time to work out lately, so when he brought it up again today, I decided just to get it over with. On my way there I decided to just do 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical and call it good. Start simple, don't kill yourself. This was my intent.

So I hopped on the last available elliptical machine and start moving at a pretty decent clip. Before I knew it 5 minutes had gone by. Thanks to a little help from my friends (Will Smith, Gwen Stefani, Smashmouth, Gloria Estefan, George Thorogood, Alanis Morrisette, Shenia Twain and Journey with a little Billy Joel thrown in for good measure) the minutes were flying by and I was rounding the bend at 30 minutes. That's when the endorphins kicked in. I was starting to feel good. I was thinking crazy thoughts like...let's keep going. I set a goal for myself to burn 400 calories. A nice even number, I thought. Once I got t0 400, those crazy thoughts kept telling me not to stop.

By the time I finished my workout I had burned 560 calories and "ran" over 5 miles...in 60 minutes...ONE HOUR, twice what I planned, but it just felt good to keep going. I used to love running. In high school I lettered 7 times in track/cross country. Then I got burnt out. Mainly due to shin splints that required my legs to be taped up in order to reduce the stress on my shins. It became hard to "run through the pain." I had taken several years off from running in college, then a few years after I was married I started conditioning again to run the Hood to Coast. It didn't take long before my legs started screaming at me. I haven't run outside since.

Now, instead of hitting the pavement, the elliptical is the next best thing. In fact, it was so good, I may have to go back again tomorrow.