Exercising AND looking good at the same time.

I'm fairly certain that only a select few had this on their schedules in high school. It was probably written in pencil underneath the P.E. class time slot.  I think my guidance counselor's pencil broke before he got to my schedule.

C'mon...you know exactly what I mean.
When you drive the 1/2 mile trip to the library and see all the joggers and bikers along the way. Yes, those fitness fanatics who look good, even when breaking a sweat. And you are driving, because if you ran that 1/2 mile to the library, the librarians might think they should break out the AED upon your arrival.
Or when you take your kids to the "Y" so they can go swimming, and you pass all these people coming out who look like they are old enough to collect social security, but fit enough that they could beat you in a  3 mile foot race any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I'm not saying exercise is bad.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  There are probably a few thousand blogs and websites dedicated to helping us all look good, feel better and live longer by exercising. Our doctors, our Surgeon General ,our First Lady, our bathroom scales and our non-elastic waisted pants all tell us we need to exercise. I, myself  played sports in high school and college.  Loved almost every minute of it, even though it was exercise.

Except for one thing. 

No matter what the sport, my coach expected us to show up to pre-season with at least some conditioning (read running) having been done during the off season.  This created a large amount of anxiety for me every time.  You see, due to missing the above mentioned class, I could never get more than 5 minutes into a "jog" without turning into the human version of the star of "Attack of the Killer Tomato"  When people are offering to call 911 or get you a bottle of water when you are only 3 blocks from your house, it can get pretty discouraging.  Let's just say I was never quite "conditioned" when pre-season workouts started.  Then I thought I would get smart :)  I would play goalie :) They don't have to run around the field....aren't supposed to run around the field in fact. Brilliant! (I thought).

Until basketball season....no goalies :(
I decided that was OK though because the basketball court was a lot smaller than a field hockey or lacrosse field. (side note..field hockey is NOT ice hockey on a field and women's lacrosse is a very different game from men's lacrosse).   Even the sprints didn't bother me too much, since being sprints, they were done faster.  It also helped that the girls who had gotten to take that special class were just as winded as I  at the end of the sprint drills.

 Until I got to college...and met our team's starting power forward.
She was 6' tall and as graceful as a ballerina.  She never got winded during sprints. She practically tip-toed down the court during drills, while I Clydesdaled my way from one end of the gym to the other. (no disrespect to the horses)  Obviously she had gotten into the advanced class. Obviously I was in over my red faced, sweat dripping head.   We both survived.  One of us just barely.

Fast forward a few (ahem ) years.  Apparently there are very few inexpensive opportunities for adult women to continue playing the sports I loved as a teen and single young adult.  That left me with only one choice for cheap exercise..sigh...running :(  This time around though, I decided things would be different.  I would learn to make it past the first  5 minutes of jogging!  I would find someone who could help me learn more about conditioning and training!!  I would learn how to look good while exercising!!!!

Well, two out of three isn't bad...right?

Because I still missed the class on that.....