WALKERS HIGH

On the treadmill again, alternating my eyeballs between the monitor tuned to Fox News, ESPN and the occasional attractive middle aged women who happen to cross my field of vision (God I never will learn)!

I'm about 7 weeks into this latest diet and about 6 weeks into the knowledge that my wife wanted to be the next X. 

I joined the local fitness center by my new place of residence and everyday I start my workout with time on the human equivalent of the hamster wheel, the treadmill. 

I started slow and short due to the problems I have been having with my heart and shortness of breath. 

Losing several lbs and exercising every day dramatically improved my breathing and I worked up to doing the hamster wheel for a solid hour at a pretty good clip. 

After I hit the treadmill for an hour I workout with weights for 30 to 60 minutes. 

I have to remind myself that it's ok if I'm working out with weights that are lighter then some of the women there are lifting. My rotator cuff repairs let me know real quick if I am over-doing it. 

The biggest improvement was realized on the treadmill after a couple of weeks of adding minutes and speed until I was able to go an entire hour without falling down with a heart attack. 

Then one day after about 45 minutes of sweating and grunting I noticed my breathing rate slowed and I suddenly felt great. Wait a minute, this is the part of the treadmill workout I should be hitting the wall.

Instead I felt like I had just started the walk. 

That thought took me back in time, I was in my early 20's and I was in the best shape of my life. Considering I was a smoker and party animal back then, that's saying something. 

My exercise regiment consisted of working out hard and heavy with free weights one day, the next day I laid off the weights and went for a long run. 

After 2 miles I would feel the wall right in front of me, I would be gasping for air but I would push on through. 

Then one day as I felt the wall closing in, my breathing rate returned to normal and I closed my mouth and started breathing through my nose like I had just started running. I felt great and it seemed like I could run forever. 

I had heard of "the runners high", but this was my first time feeling the euphoria that comes with it. 

Too bad that feeling and the workout regiment didn't last. 

I eventually gave up the running and the most weight I was lifting after that was the 12 oz curls. 

There would be other sporadic fits of fitness in the intervening years, but I never got another taste of that runners high. 

That is till last week in the gym, never mind that I was walking not running on a treadmill, it still felt damned good. 

The only thing the X said that was true that night when she was laying out all the reasons she was voting me out of tribe was when she said I had put on weight and wasn't being smart about my health. 

I had started my latest diet a week before she laid her bullshit on me.
I'm not doing this for her or because of her, I am doing it for my grandson and my kids and the rest of my family, but mostly for myself.

I've lost 28 lbs and my body is in a lot better condition. I've still got a ways to go, at least 25 more pounds but I feel great achieving my "walkers high".

With feeling really great comes the memory of someone else that said he felt really great. 

He had been a college basketball standout and is the all time NCAA Division 1 scorer. 

He had a good NBA career that was cut short by injuries. 

He still enjoyed playing pick up games and some years after his retirement during a game he was heard saying "I feel great"!

He walked back on the floor and collapsed. 

At the age of 40, Pistol Pete Maravich laid on the floor dead of a heart attack.

Which brings me to this feeling of some angst about "feeling great" after my hour on the hamster wheel and my Walker's High.