Day 258 - I Hate Stretching

I didn't used to hate stretching.

I used to enjoy it. It was relaxing.

But back then, I was flexible. Really flexible. Stretching was easy. And it felt good.

Now, I'm still flexible... for my age. It's like being good looking, for a tortoise.

Thing is, I KNOW it's good form me. To run every day, I NEED to do it. And it does make me feel better.

But while I'm doing it, it's not relaxing... it's work. I sweat. I grunt. Things pop and crackle. If I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't.

In fact, it's to the point that my body needs stretching so much that I've had to bring in a professional. (Hi Kathy.)

I submit myself to Active Isolated Stretching. Or as we like to call it, expensive elective torture.

But I can say 100% that without Kathy and AIS, I wouldn't be running today. Or tomorrow. After exercise programs, 3 personal trainers, 2 physical therapists, a chiropractor, and my sports medicine guy, it was AIS that fixed me. Those other things helped. They alleviated the symptoms, but they didn't fix what was wrong.

And really stretching isn't fixing, as much as keeping everything tuned and working properly.

So as much as I hate it, it's kept me going.

So let's all take a minute to think about the yucky medicine in our lives that we know we should take, that we know would make us feel better, and commit just 5 minutes today to fitting it in.

And maybe it'll be worth it.

Good running,
Doug

Numbers: 1.4 miles on grass.