Getting strong now

<cue theme from Rocky>
So here at Chez O’Shea we have been all about the physical fitness/getting in shape thing of late. I’ve been training for an Olympic distance triathlon that is (gulp!) next weekend and Chuck has been struggling to get back in shape post-chemotherapy (they don’t really tell you how long that takes – and it takes months to start to feel normal again). But we’ve been working hard: biking a couple of times a week (both of us), swimming (me), kayaking (Chuck), running (both of us). Keeping our noses to the grindstone we didn’t really take note of how well we were doing until this morning when I realized that Chuck had just run (not jogged, not walked, not sauntered, ran) 2.75 miles at a decent pace. It’s too soon to call it a breakthrough, but we suddenly saw light at the end of the tunnel. He’s really okay, and getting better. There has been a part of me, a secret well-hidden quiet little part of me, that has been worrying that he still wasn’t okay, that the chemo had really taken a permanent toll (and of course it has taken a mental toll on us, stolen our illusions of indestructibility – but I’m talking about the eternal optimist Chuck who is full of piss and vinegar, and frogs and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails of course). Well, it hasn’t. And watching him chug through an 8 1/2 mile run yesterday then turn  around and do a real deal 2.75 mile run this morning, I felt a Lose Weight Exercise lift off my shoulders. I expect the Lose Weight Exercise will be back more than once as the years go by, but right here, right now, life is good.
<end Rocky theme>