Hi Gram,
Man, have my legs been hurting the past few days! It all started on Thursday first thing in the morning. We did our usual morning walk which included lots of stairs. The Palapon group (my gym friends) caught up to us right at the start, then started to pass us. We would have none of that, so we spent the rest of the route keeping pace and running occasionally to stay with them. At the stairs, I felt obliged to run as many as I could. Surprisingly, I made it all the way to the top just as I ran out of breath. This wasn’t my nemesis stairs, but it was still a steep long stairway. We still had more stairs up then back down before going back the way we came before we reached the hotel.

After a quick breakfast, I headed to the gym for Klausfit class only to discover that, for me, it was leg day. One of the first exercises was a set of walking lunges. This exercise has been aggravating for me my whole life, or at least as long as I can remember. I’ll take the first few lunges, then have trouble getting back up. Either my legs are just not strong enough and I have to cheat it, or my balance is off and I end up toppling over. When he told me that I was to do four laps back and forth across the gym, I dreaded it. I figured I would maybe get one length of the gym, then have to either start pushing with my hands to get back up or not going all the way to the floor. I gave it my all on the first length only to find myself at the other end, having lunged with each knee down to the floor without having toppled over. My balance has clearly improved over the last few weeks, so emboldened I turned around to go the other way. I figured out that if I swung my arms as I lunged, it helped with my stability. The padded floor helped my knees accept their fate too, knowing they wouldn’t bruise as easily, so I found myself back at the other wall. Two more laps like that and I was ecstatic that I had completed all four laps.

After a set of arm exercises that let my legs rest, I was back at the top. Each set of exercises consists of three exercises to be done three times. I was told to skip the cardio portion today (I skip the cardio most days so my body builds muscle instead of eating it), so I alternated between the lunges and arm exercises. Each lap of walking lunges was 15 steps. Four laps was 60 steps. Three sets means I did 180 lunges. A short rest, then the next set of exercises was sumo squats alternating with bench dips. To recap, I walked faster than usual, ran up multiple sets of stairs in an attempt to show off, then did 180 lunges and 75 sumo squats so far, all before 9:30am. The day continued though.

After class, I headed back to the room for a quick shower, then Nattiya and I headed out to run some errands. The bus passed just as we walked out, so we opted to walk to our first stop. Speaking of busses, the tour busses here are monstrosities with more bling and artwork than a parade float. We saw one parked next to the hotel, so I had to get a picture.

I said goodbye to her, then walked towards my next errand, some more tests at the hospital, looking over my shoulder for the bus. By the time the next one came, I was almost there so I just walked the rest of the way. The hospital was as efficient as always and I soon left with ideal results. I headed to do some stretching and yoga, where it was also leg day.

Now mind you, it didn’t occur to me yet that I had been working my legs so much. That realization came later. After yoga, I headed back to the room, blissfully unaware of how the next few days would feel. I woke up on Friday, wondering why my legs hurt. I figured I was just stiff and needed to get the blood pumping, so we headed out on our walk. I paid close attention to my posture and body mechanics and stopped to stretched once or twice, but gave it no thought when we walked up the steep winding path to my nemesis stairs, then ran the steps. After all, I just needed to stretch the legs more if they’re hurting like this right?

Klausfit had me doing some different leg exercises, which I had him swap out for some core work to target my abdomen and give the legs a break. Leg lifts, bicycle kicks, the kind of exercises where you lie on the back and work the lower abdomen – and a lot of legs. By the time yoga arrived, I had finally done the math to realize what I’d done, and decided to skip it and rest. In the past two days, I have walked 18 miles, done 180 lunges, 75 squats, a few hundred bicycle kicks, and held lots of deep yoga poses and one legged balances. I skipped my walk this morning and luckily Klaus decided to work our shoulders in mobility class. Nattiya has agreed to take it easy today, so we just walked around the mall a little, had lunch, and got in a nap.

Bored with just sitting around for much of the day, we decided to put on some fancy-ish clothes (a button down shirt for me, a dress for her) to go see the new Wonka movie. It’s a prequel, starring Timothy Chalamet, to the original story and the 1971 movie with Gene Wilder. I don’t know what the professional reviewers thought of it, but the two of us loved it! It was a heart warming, silly, well done production that had us laughing and cheering for the characters. It was a perfect date night kind of movie, after which we stopped by 7-11 to satisfy a mysterious chocolate craving that hit both of us out of nowhere. Sugared up and smiling warmly, it was soon time for bed.