This is of course an illusion to the famous 'runner's high' that we've all heard about. Turns out that runner's high is due in large part to a dose of the stress hormone cortisol as a result of putting your body through so much stress...but I'll leave that for another writer to take care of :)
In this case, I'm talking about the feeling I get after pushing through the "I'm tired let's blow this joint" phase that inevitably hits me after the initial hour of class. On Monday and Wednesday nights we have Foundations class that lasts for about an hour. It's a warm up and then basic drills. It shouldn't be tiring but it is. Then there's Training, a higher caliber time of more intense drilling that culminates in a lot of rolling.
Inevitably after the first hour of class I have a little internal discussion with myself that goes something like this:
Wuss Abigail: "Hey, I made it to class and didn't do too bad. I'm pretty tired though, been cleaning all day. Why don't we just go home and get some rest?"
Drill Instructor Abigail: "Are you kidding? We've paid for a month of classes and we're going to make it worth it! You know if we can stay for the next 5 minutes that we'll get our second wind."
Wuss Abigail: "Yeah but we have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow. Isn't sleep more important than rolling around getting sweaty and beat up?"
Drill Instructor Abigail: "Well yeah, but not nearly as much fun."
I admit that Wuss Abigail has won a few times, but I'm starting to get in so much better shape that the "I'm tired" excuse doesn't actually work as well any more and I've been having much shorter conversations with myself recently.
The ending of this nice little story is that every time I do in fact stay and (literally) sweat it out, I always end up meeting someone cool, learning something new, getting a new injury to show off, or pulling off some neat move that will keep me grinning for the next 24 hours.
It has NEVER been not worth staying. And in case double negatives freak you out, let me say it another way; it has ALWAYS been worth staying for the Training class, without exception.
As someone in class told me a couple of weeks ago, "It doesn't matter what's going on in my life; money, work, stress...it all goes away when I'm in this room. I leave everything outside when I walk through those doors."
Pretty neat, eh?
Thanks for reading everyone :)
AS
