Pain

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
Lance Armstrong

All my body parts hurt right now. All week I've been working out at the gym with fellow players. We've been lifting, doing cardio, working on form and speed, and I hurt. Who knew rolling over to turn on the lamp would become an all-encompassing challenge akin to climbing Mt. Everest? When did my body get old? Oh, there are perks to all this lifting of weight and climbing of stairs on the climber-my muscles are growing, my belly is shrinking...but could you please pass me the Icy Hot and ibuprofen?

My favorite part of working out at the gym these past weeks has been comparing the various 24 Hour Fitness clubs. Each club has a very specific clientele as dictated by the surrounding neighborhood. The club on Andresen seems to be where the European mafia work on their muscles and unemployed regular Joe's pound out a rhythm on the treadmill. The Tech Center club is more Stepford Wives and football teens. Everyone there is a size 2 or smaller and has no problem staring with their mouths open when anyone over a size 10 walks through. You should see them gape at Big Country, or freak out when myself or Wheels walks into the locker room. And the parking lot is filled with Lexus, Mercedes and BMW cars. The Mall 205 club is the most comfortable. Everyone there is normal sized, interested in their own workout and friendly about re-racking weights and taking turns. Even though it's crammed into the corner of a dying mall, it's still a good place to work out.

Today we ran into a group of previously NFL and Pac-10 players. They were in the gym playing basketball and we were working on getting off the line low and fast. Apparently they saw Wheels learning to run routes and make cuts and took pity on her. A couple of them came over to talk to us and the NFL player (I didn't get his name) came over and gave her some great pointers! That was awesome!! Thanks guys!