107: back on track

After 2 days of no exercise, I felt like a gym-phile junkie...just a little "off" without my (gym) fix. It's almost sick, really. It was both a physical and mental desire to get my butt (literally) in gear. My needs had expanded past my own personal selfishness to the needs to my supporters and now TWO personal honorees -- those in my extended circle of friends and family that have been affected by blood cancer. I could not, NOT train. Sound gung-ho enough? I hope so. I'm setting myself up to not let this happen again (the two days off) only because I know myself. I need a routine and if I falter, I falter. And I do not want to falter.

Some facts for ya:

• Approximately every 5 minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer.
  An estimated 118,310 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma in 2007.
• New cases of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma account for 8.5% of the 1,399,790 new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States this year.
• Every 10 minutes, another child or adult dies from blood cancer.
• Leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma will kill an estimated 53,920 persons in the United States this year. These related cancers account for 9.5% of the deaths from cancer each year.
• More than 823,000 Americans are presently living with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma - approximately 14,000 of these people live in Northern California.

Whew...nuff on my soapbox!

So this morning, I was a determined woman. At my home gym, I pushed through quarter mile speed bursts on the treadmill, spread apart by arm free weights, core strengthening exercises on the exercise ball and adjustable grade bench (you know the one where you lay down with you feet higher than your head and you ankled tucked under the padded bar?) where I did situps and over the body medicine ball tosses. Thank god no one else was in the gym, otherwise my superheroine prowess would have shrunken to a self-conscious wannabe.

After the workout, I felt gooood. Clean almost, if that makes any sense. Ready for my long run tomorrow at the real track!