Knives + Stairs + I Hate a Man Named Darryl

I went to a personal training session for the first time in my life on Tuesday. I made the mistake of telling the trainer, Darryl, one of my goals was to tone. Which apparently means we do lots of weight training. I have never done any weight training whatsoever. He warned me I would hate him the next day. Needless to say, my legs (and arms... and abs... but mostly my legs) have been in the worst pain I've ever felt in my life (so far) ever since then. They felt like someone was stabbing my quads with 20 knives, each leg, every time I walked up or down stairs, tried to sit on a chair, stood up from a chair, bent over to get something out of my suitcase, walked anywhere. There was a lot of wincing and lip biting and almost falling over trying to do things. Stairs were definitely the worst, though.

The day after the session I came down to DC for an event I planned. We had the check in table upstairs, by the front door to the venue, but the event was held in a space... down... two... flights... of... stairs. STAIRS. KNIVES. THE PAIN.

Side note here: I always wear high heels to work functions, even though I'm usually standing for a long time and doing a lot of walking around checking on things. I think it has something to do with when I wear flats I'm like negative 2 feet tall and feel like a little girl, but when I wear heels I think I look like an adult. So when I'm around lots of people at my firm, I like to look adult and professional. I also don't (usually) find heels uncomfortable like some people do. I usually will wear flats preparing for an event so I can run around, then throw my heels on when it starts.

I brought these flats with me to run around in, but didn't plan on wearing them all evening because of what I said above, but also because they didn't really match my outfit. Let's just say if I were another female and saw someone wearing those shoes with what I was wearing I'd judge her on her shoe choice. But maybe I'm just judgy like that. So I wore my flats running up and down those stairs until the reception started and then I bit the bullet and threw on my 4 1/2 inch heels. Remember the 20 knives? Let's go up to 30 now with the heels on. The pain. Oh the pain... there were a few points where I thought I was going to just fall because my legs were obviously just going to break if I was in that much pain. Also sometimes the pain would get so bad that they would kind of turn to jello. Jello does not make for very supportive legs. I seriously must have looked like I had never worn heels before to all our guests. Gritting my teeth, wincing at every step, holding onto the handrail for dear life... So I guess that whole adult-looking thing probably flew out the window.

Today it only feels like 15 knives, so I guess that's an improvement. Also, I'm able to wear low heels again after wearing only flats. Still can't sit or bend down without wincing, though.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be down to 10 knives so I can actually enjoy exploring DC. Fingers crossed.

I hate you Darryl.

But I'll see you in a week for our next session. Hopefully I'll have forgotten about all this pain by then.

Lesson of the day: Don't go to a personal training session for the first time in your life if you have ANYTHING to do for the next week that involves standing or walking or sitting, and most importantly not going anywhere that has two flights of stairs you have to take 40 times in a night. OK FINE and maybe, just maybe, pack flats that match and don't wear your 4 1/2 inch death wish heels.

-C
xxx