Victories of Tomorrow

The difficulties and struggles of today are what we must pay for the victories of tomorrow.Exactly the words I read as I walked out of the gym today. They came right after the word Commitment that rested right above the sprinter with his head down on the framed poster. Not only had my glutamine failed my overly sore back, but my motivation was more than in the dumps. I tried to talk myself into a rest day the whole drive over, but opted to get in my 60 minute cardio anyway. I headed to the same familiar eliptical that I always use so that I see the faces of everyone as they come into the gym. I turned on my MP3 to hear my familiar tunes that always drag me through my grueling hour. Only today was different, my body just wasn't responding, it was just begging for a day off. I think my MP3 was in on the plan as well, because today of all the days that it could fail me, it refused to work. So I started my overly quiet cardio journey once again. I usually try to think of cardio in ten minute increments and then I only need to make it through six of them; but today, I only survived 2 and a half of those increments. The hamstrings that I apparantly thought could be fixed in a day's workout were refusing to cooperate any longer. The demands that I had put on them two days before were just too apparant as I tried to make it past twenty five minutes. So, I stepped off my machine, and called it a day. I can say today is one of two things, it's either time to listen to my body, or reevaluate where my heart is. When we get to this point it can be hard to differentiate between the two. I decided when I ended my cardio that maybe it was my heart that just wasn't there and maybe it really was time to walk away. However, as I made it to the exit door and saw that sprinter with his head down, I realized that maybe I was mistaken. Maybe even the best athletes are just people, and we just expect too much of ourselves sometimes. We start to believe that our body doesn't require rest like the average person; that maybe we are a failure if we give in to some much needed rest. So today I was the sprinter with his head down, but tomorrow; I will be again, a well rested figure girl in search of the victories of tommorrow.