First, there was yesterday, with the treadmill class. A workout that a month ago would have been hard, but not impossible, damn near killed me. Seriously. I was toast by the end of it. I gave some serious thought to skipping the leg class afterwards, but ultimately hung in there. Partially because I knew I didn't feel that bad, really, and couldn't justify wussing out. But also partially because the class instructor would notice I wasn't there. (The same woman does the treadmill class, and she commented on my prolonged absence yesterday morning. Oops. She asked if I'd been travelling, and I said I had. It wasn't entirely the truth, but it wasn't entirely untrue, either.) So, onto legs it was.

The class felt fine, but when I woke up this morning, my hamstrings were angry. I think I just overextended them while we were doing dead lifts - that's what it feels like, more than anything else. Too much stretchy after too much sitty. That sort of thing. Anyhow, the goal for today was an hour on the treadmill. I started off at a brisk walk, figuring I'd warm up the hamstrings before I took off running. I got warmed up, I started at a nice, easy, 11:00 pace. Then I kicked it up to 10:45. And then, after less than a mile, I was dying. I walked for a bit. I ran for a bit more. I felt completely pathetic and out of shape.

Here's the horrible thing: I hate the treadmill. Haaate it. So when a workout starts to go south on me, it goes south fast. Had I been running outside, I would have found a nice happy medium, and probably would have ran/walked the entire hour, doing more running than walking. However, because I was on the treadmill, and because it was 6:30 in the morning, I just got cranky and frustrated. I made myself hang in there for a full 30 minutes, but I wound up walking most of it, covering a whopping 2.13 miles during that time. But, 30 minutes of moving is better than nothing at all, right?

I'll be able to run outside on Saturday, so we'll see just how out of shape I am then. But, man, I hope it's not as dismal as it felt today, or else I'll be really disappointed. Almost a year's worth of progress, gone in under a month. Oops. That'll teach me to get lazy during the holidays.