What a difference a day makes

Stress. Anxiety. Sleeplessness. Clenching muscles in my stomach. Aches.

And then I go to 2 hours of Kendo and voila, where did it all go? One of the things that I have noticed besides a little more gray, and a lot more aches and pains, as I hit the other side of 40 is that if I don’t work out on a regular basis, I become a grumpy little bitch. I get moody, I snap a lot, I mumble under my breath, and take everything personal. Is this MANopause? Am I going thru a life change?

It’s definitely harder to get my ass out of the chair and into the gym. I’ve always looked forward to martial arts classes, and have been going regularly, but the last three weeks have been brutal. First I didn’t go to jujitsu on Sunday the 3rd because I was wiped from being the Dungeon Master at my son’s D&D party. (Yes, I’m 40 and I still play D&D fairly regularly with my kids.) Wednesday was Passover at my inlaws, which was nice if difficult at times. It was good to see my bro-in-law and his family. Thursday was Passover at our friends house, which is something I look forward to because they are fairly religious and I enjoy ceremony. Plus they make it fun for the kids and we all have a good time. Friday saw me going out to my parents on Long Island while Fae stayed home sick. It was a nice visit, I got to sleep in late and take long walks on the beach by myself each day, so that helped a great deal. As I said, Wed I was at Passover, so I couldn’t go to Kendo.

Did I work out? Nope. Did I practice for Kendo or Jujistu? Nope. Was I grumpy pants until I got to stand in front of the Atlantic and let it breathe thru me? You freakin bet your butt I was.

All of this tells me that I need to stop making excuses and start practicing more and working out more. I’m going to be doing the NJ Triathlon in July and I do not want to get left behind by my friend and my brother whom I’m doing it with. A good friend from my Jujitsu class might be joining us as well. And it’s no big deal, it’s a sprint – 500m swim, 12.5 mile ride, 3mile run. Still, I want to beat my time from 2 yrs ago.

So what happened? I went into class last night a little nervous, but determined to push myself. If the 5 lbs of sweat I left in my gi is any indication, I succeeded. I’ve been fighting a headache all week, and working out actually helped too. Nice bonus. Class was long, and parts of me hurt like hell (tho not as much today, thank goodness for Tylenol), but I got thru the whole thing and felt good afterwards.

The weird thing is, I figured I’d fall into bed and pass out. I was up until 1am. Ever get that charged feeling, like you’re too big for your skin? I couldn’t get my brain to stop yammering at me, or get my body to relax, even after a warm shower. So I stared at the clock, alternately reading, watching tv, and wishing I could just pass the hell out.

Headache started to come back so I took some tylenol PM. I was out cold by 1:05.
woke up 5 hours later to get ready for work and had to pinch my cheeks every so often to stay away. About a gallon of coffee later, I’m writing this. My boss just dropped off a Krispy Kreme donut, so I’ll probably be in a coma in a few minutes.

Morning everyone