P90X Thought Stream, Day 36: Dearest Freshness

[Valentine's night]


What's this?  Where am I?

Oh, I remember: back in the saddle.

P90X Thought Stream, Day 36: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps.  56 minutes.  Cf. Day 29: Back to Begging.

1. With this many days off, does this even count?  [Contemplative silence]  Absolutely.  No shame, no apologies.  Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.  And now he's gotta bring it.
2. Let's be honest.  My main reason for getting back on the horse is because 30 minutes ago I traded in my last man card when once again pronouncing strawberry my favorite ice cream flavor.  I thought I had a few extra cards stored up, having forgotten that I lost another one the other day (cf. Day 34: Heroine).
3. Thirty seconds into jogging warm-ups, a smile breaks wide across my face.  It is so good to be back.  I know this is going to hurt, but I'm craving this X-stasy.
4. How great it feels to want to return to my workout rhythm not out of guilt (for once), but out of knowing how good it makes me feel in the other 22.5 hours I'm not lifting.  I may not look it (too much), but after a several days off in a row, I feel squidgy.  I notice the difference when taking stairs at school, pacing in front of the classroom, and even standing.  I need a little sharpening.  I know just the thing to do it.
5. With all my bands broken and now lying helplessly like overworn scraps of rubber (for that's what they are), I'm driven to inventing new balance postures to create the proper resistance.  My favorite is Kung Fu Fighting Shoulder Press: standing on your right foot, bend your left leg and hook your longest scrap around your elevated toe, ankle, or knee as a fulcrum.  Then hoist your arms skyward until fully extended.  Repeat.
6. When fast push-ups and slow push-ups become the same thing, you know you're maxed out.
7. There lives the dearest freshness deep down things ("God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins)
8. No matter how hard this gets, at least I know it will be easier than teaching poetic meter to a room full of 9th-grade relativists . . . (cf. Day 33: In Blank Verse)
9. No matter how hard this gets, at least I know it will be easier than teaching poetic meter to a room full of 9th-graders whose standard for melody is Lady Gaga's monotonous "Bad Romance" . . . .
10. Did not miss Ab Ripper X.  But it was waiting for me, and I couldn't stand it up.  I did 18 Oblique V-Ups on my right side before falling asleep.  I was rewarded, however, with 30 Mason Twists followed by a 10-second break and 10 more MTs.  Not bad for my first day back (cf. Day 9: Dog Pound; Day 15: Hear Me Roar).

     X.  Happy Valentine's Day.  Xo.

Read the whole P90X Thought Stream here. . . .