Remember how I said that this was the season of “Suck it up, cupcake?” And remember how I said that I was going to do what I needed to do fitness-wise even if I didn’t want to do it because I had to do it?
Well that little promise I made has already been put to the test.
I’m at Balticon right now. I’ve been in a hotel since Friday, at the biggest science fiction convention I attend all year long. And the question that always presents itself to me at cons has once again reared its ugly head.
Do I exercise at the con, or do I just blow it off until the con is over?
Balticon is an endurance event no matter how you slice it. There are always at least three panels going on at the same time that you want to be at, and in between panels it’s non-stop meet-and-greet, hand out the hugs, sell books, make connections, chat with friends, party-hardy for four days straight. Adding exercise into that mix is a bit daunting, and usually I don’t bother. But I’m happy to report that this weekend has been different.
For starters, Mary and Patricia, two of my best friends, were here for the first half of the con. They’ve got karate belt tests coming up. I’ve got a karate belt test coming up. We agreed we would get together at least once for a practice session to go over some katas. So I made sure to pack sweats and sneakers and not stay up too late on Friday night, and lo and behold, not only did I get in the karate practice Saturday morning, I also managed to do a 20-minute run before hand.
And then I was dead tired the rest of the day. So naturally, I thought I’d skip the whole workout thing on Sunday because a)Mary and Patricia wouldn’t be there to spur me on and b) my ass was too worn out to get up and move. And yet, somehow, I managed to get up and get my rear in gear and I headed out the door for another morning session of running and karate practice.
Did I want to do it? No, not in the least. Therefore I did it anyway. And that’s the whole point of “Suck it up, cupcake!” There are lots of times when I just don’t want to do what I know I should do, and I’ve got to do it anyway. So I do it, through the miraculous technique of shutting down my brain and not thinking about what it is I’m going to do until I’m actually doing it and then it’s too frikkin’ late to do anything but go through with it.
Seriously, I did not even consider where I was going to run or how long I was going to be out on Sunday morning. I did not think about what katas I needed to practice. I did not even think the word “run” until I got out the front door of the hotel and then I let my feet do there thing and yeah, I cursed and swore at myself a bit for putting my body through the torture of another early morning workout, but I did it anyway.
I will not be doing an early morning workout this Monday morning, I know, because I’ll need time to pack the car and get ready to head home. However, I do know I will be back in the dojo on Tuesday no matter how tired I am from the weekend because my instructor told me I would be there and Patricia and Mary told me I would be there and because I know that when my inner whiner kicks in with a resounding chorus of “I don’t wanna!” I’m just going to shut down my brain again and do it anyway. Like I said, the season of “Suck it up, cupcake!” is here, and yours truly plans to do just that for as long as she can keep her brain completely turned off.
Really, how hard can that be?
Have fun exercising!
