What a fun day it’s been. I got to spend most of the day running all over the Twin Cities, which meant I didn’t have time to study. (YAAAAY!!) It also meant that I was driving for many, many miles without a license. (YAAA– wait a sec…) And it’s all because yesterday, someone stole my wallet. (BOOOO!!)
I went up to the YMCA in Woodbury to work out with my older brother, Brent. I know, after the entry about the spinning class and having Jell-O legs, that seems like a really bad idea, especially since I’d finally regained the ability to walk up and down the stairs properly the day before. But we’re trying to get in shape for an adventure race coming up this spring. (Adventure racing is kinda like a triathlon, except it includes other challenging stuff like kayaking, rock climbing and bushwhacking (over and under and through the woods to Checkpoint #14 we go!)). Basically, it’s a whole lot of stuff that requires not moving in a straight line.
Anyway! We’re getting ready for a race this spring that’s supposed to be an 8-12 hour race. Thus, the plan is to prepare on our own, but meet every two weeks or so for an increasing number of hours of running on treadmills and riding stationary bikes. Woo hoo! Excitement city—running in one place, watching TVs playing random channels and listening to music on an MP3 player… (That was my Christmas gift from Dad, but he didn’t know about it until after I’d bought and used it yesterday. If you’re reading this, thanks, Dad!)
So Brent and I got to the YMCA, threw our stuff in a pair of lockers, went upstairs and ran on the treadmills for an hour. … Okay, he ran on the treadmill. I settled for a fast walk because my leg muscles were still in pretty bad shape—I wanted to keep them from buckling so I wouldn’t collapse onto the belt, which would fling me off the machine and into the desk behind us, leaving me as a large pile of twitchy, sweaty human goo… it just wouldn’t be cool. I have a reputation to maintain! I’m someone who can handle physical adversity and not end up tossing my cookies on national tele… um… never mind.
We eventually finished our hour of moving to stay in one place was over, during which time I discovered new muscles that hadn’t been pissed off while I was spinning, but their attitude had taken a sudden turn for the worse. Thankfully, we were heading to the bikes for forty minutes next, which gave those muscles some time to shut the hell up again. I was kinda surprised that pedaling for so long went so well, but given that I didn’t have a specific speed/pace/rate-of-motion-to-keep-me-from-falling-off-the-back-of-the-bike, I had the chance to take it a bit easier.
The original plan was to go back to the treadmill for the final twenty minutes, but then we thought, “Hey, upper body strength is good! Trying to paddle an inflatable kayak with our feet would suck!” After a quick look around, the only thing that would provide any level of upper-body aerobic exercise was one rowing machine. We decided to call it a day.
Next, it was time to hit the showers! We originally wanted to hit the hot tub to nurse our sore muscles, but there were two problems. 1) Brent accidentally left his swimsuit at home. 2) They didn’t have a hot tub. Shit… So it was time to hit the showers! After a nice rinse-off, I started getting dressed. I was wearing a t-shirt that was too large than my frame, so I moved to tuck it into my pants and that’s when I noticed something was wrong.
I checked my right front pocket—nothing. I checked all my other pockets—nada. I checked the locker—zilch. I checked my workout bag—zero. I even checked several bodily orifices that aren’t supposed to have things stuck in them (don’t ask which ones…), but no such luck.
My wallet was gone.
