Last night, I went to the gym, instead of the yoga studio, and ran for about four miles on the tread mill. It was my first time running since December 22 so I felt as if I was making up for lost time. This morning, I could feel the soreness in my thighs, hips and shoulders and sensed that I had lost form in such a short time.

I guess this precarious status of conditioning is due to my age since I am fighting against the natural tendency of the human body to lose muscular strength. Or it may be that it just takes a long while to rebuild strength and flexibility after letting it slide so far. It's a sobering thought, one that I've mentioned before, and reminds me that it's probably not wise to take time off from my yoga practice or my conditioning work.

Of course, who am I trying to kid? I've only been running for the past three months, and have had several extended breaks due to travel and work commitments so it's not as if I were training for a marathon. It's not even long enough to draw any conclusions about what my body is capable of. I should understand by now that any meaningful change in body, mind or spirit has to be measured against a much longer stretch of time.

Labels: conditioning, practice