I Feel ... Not As Strong

First of all, I am SO GLAD TOMORROW'S MY OFF DAY.

On the slate for today's workout for me was a total body lift. So, I decided to do the aforementioned Shape workout (head over to Charlotte's to see it ... too lazy to link ... read down a few posts).

Since I picked up the actual magazine (wanted to add said workout to the ol' files), I read it more indepth than what I skimmed previously. I caught (that i didn't before) that one is supposed to do said circuit three to four times through.

Ha.

Me? I did it once through (after the stepmill warmup and stretching, of course) and had to take random breaks to regain my breathing.

Now I don't know if my lungs were giving me crap because ... a.) it's cold out today and my sports asthma gives me more crap when the ambient air is cold; b.) I'm still fighting off a random cold; or c.) my cardiovascular endurance really has gone to hell worse than I originally thought.

It's probably a combination of the three, but damn was it humbling. ESPECIALLY doing the four-count push-ups while on my knees.

Back in college when I played club ice hockey (for the team: on the ice 4-5 days a week about 2hrs at a time), after running my warm-up laps (occasionally with stairs) and stretching, I'd do some crunches and three sets of 10 push-ups. NORMAL push-ups, not assisted push-ups or whatever the ones on the knees are called. Sure, the final few were a bit tricky, but I could still do it. Not so much anymore.

The thing that's weird is, I never thought I was in that great of shape back then. Maybe it was because I was still pudgy (of course, i ate like crap half the time) or maybe it was because I was still the slowest kid on the team and felt out of shape compared to some of the rest of the super athletes on my team, but I never felt like it.

It makes me regret not eating smarter back then and not utilizing the wonderful, FREE workout facilities we had. I mean, sure, I tried half-assed-ly, but never truly stuck to making the best decisions.

If I had ate better and maybe worked out a little more, I wonder how my fitness base would be now, whether I'd be entrenched in a healthy lifestyle.

Or, conversely ... I wonder if nothing would have ultimately changed and, when I had gone back home, without a gym membership and a family that doesn't eat all that wonderfully well, would I have gone back to my oldOLD habits and be either worse off or still where I am today?