wisdom from all corners

I got some education from a woman at work. (Kelly is 38, but she looks and acts like a girl.) She had starting exercising a few weeks prior, and she was talking in the call center about this ultimate workout she does at the gym. I listened. I even asked a few questions.

During the 20 minutes or so she spent on the treadmill she varied the speed, minute by minute, from 3 to 4.5 miles/per hour, at which point she was already running, and then down again, and up again, and so on. She had started to increase the incline to 2% only a day or so before.

Oh, I thought, perhaps I am being too hard on myself dealing with an 8% incline or more. Perhaps I am attempting too much by holding the speed all the time at the highest level I can manage.

The first day I did three miles I kept the incline down at 2%, and varied the speed between 2.5 and 4 miles/hour (so I would not need to run). I don’t know if it was the low incline, the speed letup, or the simple fact that I needed to blow steam after a hard day at the office, but running this first three miles was easier than the two miles before.

My confidence clicked back into place. I was one mile closer to the marathon. It did not matter that I had accomplished this one extra mile only once, that I was still not yet running, that a marathon at this pace would take the extent of daylight, that I was irremovably 41, that my fingers swelled up thick and white, as if I had Raynaud syndrome (actually an autoimmune response to cold, while my problem was one of circulation). I had found a new method to approach my task, I could take wisdom from all corners, I was on my way to glory again.