When I first restarted this gym journey, it was early July and relatively easy to get out of bed, don workout wear and step off into the dewy still of the morning. The biggest challenge -- besides getting my protesting body to move again -- was keeping my trainer from having to make flood-insurance claims after I'd slung sweat all over the place.
The real challenge, I knew, would be happening a few months down the road: continuing to go faithfully to a 5 a.m. workout during a 20-degree (or colder) winter morning. Despite suffering those accursed body-temperature hikes that have come with middle age, I'm still basically cold-natured. And no matter how early to bed, it's still three times as tough for me to relinquish a comfortable bed during the winter months than it is during the summer months.
This being Arkansas, I figured it would technically be winter before the temps plummeted to a 20-degree low. November? Hey, no, ahem, sweat. But then I forgot that not only does the very thing I fear tend to come upon me, it tends to do so as quickly as dang possible.
The teevee weather folk warned us in plenty of time: During the second week of November, Arkansas -- along with a big chunk of the country -- was set to go through a brief Ice Age. Temperatures were going to plummet way below average for this time of year, resulting in several nights that would be colder than the proverbial witch's and Idaho well digger's body parts.
Sure enough, the morning of Nov. 12 reached a low of a reported 20 degrees. The wind was blowing enough to cause a chill factor of oh, about minus Antarctica. Next morning: no wind chill, but a reported 17 degrees. And so forth.
I made it to the gym all four of my early-morning workout days that week. But, silly moi for thinking the cold would be the only pain in the well digger's you-know-what.
My trip to WOW Fitness in southwest Little Rock puts me on Interstate 30 West from downtown Little Rock to the 65th Street exit, west on 65th to University, then north on University to Mabelvale Pike. Right before University, 65th Street intersects with a railroad track, which means an occasional wait for a train to go by. Tuesday morning, several other drivers and I were greeted by railroad crossing arms that were down -- with no train in sight -- and stayed that way. I turned around, hit a nearby thoroughfare, Geyer Springs Road, and headed south to another road that led to University and whose railroad intersection had no issues.
The next morning, 65th, normally one of the most well-lighted streets in Little Rock, was pitch black. Traffic lights -- out. Street lights -- out. Convenience store lights -- out. The overnight lights of all the industrial businesses lining that particular street -- out. At Geyer Springs the blackout ended, but then began again on Mabelvale Pike, where the gym is. WOW Fitness was in the dark. But my trainer and the gym owner, the tenacious Kameelah, had phone light and candles a-blazing and got us early birders moving anyway. Luckily (or unluckily for anybody who might have been pondering making a run for it) the lights came on after a few minutes.
The morning after that came with more railroad-crossing shenanigans in the form of a passenger train that had decided to take up residence on the tracks, blocking the intersection and not moving a lick. That meant another detour, this time a longer one back to I-30 and off on the University Avenue exit.
My next trip to the gym was Monday. Surely nothing would be off this time.
All was fine until I pulled up to the gym. It's a former car-servicing shop complete with a garage door leading into the open-concept main area. Annnnd the garage door was wide open ... something Kameelah had discovered upon her arrival.
Thank God, nothing was out of order inside. Everything was present and accounted for. But the door could not be closed. Its manual pull cord was in the ceiling, behind the raised door and out of reach. There was no ladder and, at that time, no way to obtain one. It was at least warmer than 20 degrees. But yeah, the cold was the problem this morning ... what with the giant hole in the place, letting every bit of it in.
Again, Kameelah is tenacious to a literal T when it comes to getting it in. "Better get on the cardio machine; that'll warm you up," she said before I could cut and run.
So I have the satisfaction of knowing that despite carpel tunnel syndrome ... despite a sometimes bum left leg and sometimes bum right knee ... despite having to brave North Pole temperatures and take various detours to even get to the gym ... and despite having to work out in the cold, I got it in.
All kudos to Kameelah. She's been a great reminder that in these days in which convenience is so prized, you still gotta press your way to the worthwhile stuff.
Email, with no detours:
Style on 11/24/2019