TBT - March 6, 2009 - Breaking Free & Rebirth - Hill Training Part II

Breaking Free
Tiny buds on the trees - a warm March sun
Snow and ice on the ground - winter not yet done.
Each beat of my heart senses end to the night
From darkness/despair my soul now takes flight.
Running free on the hill embracing the day
Memories of braces and canes all melt away.
So grateful to God for the healing inside
The warmth of the sun pries my heart open wide.

The frigid temperatures yielded to 29 degrees yesterday morning but the sun was warm allowing Ruth Anne and I to head outside with our personal trainer, Janine for Hill Training Part II. Since I knew we were going to do intensive cardio training, we ate breakfast almost an hour earlier and had only one piece of toast instead of two. For long runs, we need the fueling but for a short, intense cardio work out, less fuel is more. Janine was radiant when she arrived and we were so grateful that we could train outside. She was going to demonstrate to us how much fitness we had gained in just one week.

We warmed up with our 5 minute walk and then a 5 minute jog - I could easily keep pace with her this week as we did our warm up run and then the moment of truth. Drop the water belts in the snow and on your mark, get set, go - I made it up the hill with relative ease on the first run with my heart rate going up to 170. I even felt like jogging down which I could not do after the first hill the week before. And so off we went pushing and pushing allowing my heart rate to get up to 176 and doing the hill in about 1:06 - 10 seconds off the previous week. By the fifth time up the hill I was feeling a little nauseous but nothing like last week When I felt uneasy after our first run the week before. I also know that the cross training on the bike boosted my fitness level.

While we recovered from the runs up the hill and on the jog home, we talked about life and laughter and what's happening in our lives beyond training for the Marathon (yes, Virginia, there is life beyond Marathon training). Janine shared with us that she is now doing personal training via Skype for one of her clients who moved to Paris! Boston Homebodies goes international. Her client was unable to find a trainer in Paris and asked if she could continue to work with Janine using Skype. Ruth Anne talked about the opportunity for a summer internship and plans to transfer to Cal State and I talked about book signings, events, customized poetry and my process of transformation.

Janine had been listening to NPR and heard someone say that they loved their depression. Why? because the deeper you go into the dark, the closer you get to the light. That is so true! I have been going deep into the dark night of my soul - polio, childhood abuse, and growing up learning utter deprivation, lack and limitation as a human being - BUT my Spirit could not be touched and tarnished by any of these experiences and I am learning to break free of the myths and untruths that I learned growing up. At times it is a tortuous process but God has sent me so many angels to help in the process of rebirth and transformation. And what a beautiful sign we received yesterday as we saw the bright, deep blue sky, felt the warmth of the sun and saw signs of rebirth in the tiny buds on the trees.