"The Hill"

By now most of you have heard of "friends with benefits". Well, what would you say if I said you could experience exercise with "benefits"? Seriously strange, but true!

I am addicted to power walking. I love the winter months, but an invigorating part of my life is missing until the thaw comes, and I can head outdoors and hit the country roads one powerful step at a time. I follow the same five mile route pretty much everyday that I walk, and I eagerly anticipate one stretch near the beginning of my trek which I affectionately refer to as "The Hill". Originally, it took me several months to discover "The Hill". In spite of the fact that I travel the same route and climb the same serious incline every day, I think I had to reach a certain level of fitness before I could experience its magical properties. Or could it be that "The Hill" is the apex of some mysterious, magnetic field that induces orgiastic anomalies which build in intensity after recurrent exposure. I will never know.

But after 21 years of marriage, I damn near worship "The Hill". On my maiden experience with "The Hill", being caught off guard, I nearly dropped into the roadside gully moaning in ecstasy. Fortunately, this part of my daily route is located on a remote country road in front of an abandoned farmhouse, otherwise somebody might have dialed 911 thinking I was having a heart attack. Afforded the privacy of bucolic seclusion, I allowed myself to audibly revel in the wonder that is "The Hill" assuming that this was a freak experience never to be repeated. But I was surprised with a miracle indeed...

"The Hill" truly is a holy place as long as I commit to my fitness routine. I have relished in its magical properties multiple times. In the midst of this winter season, when I am pounding holes in the treadmill at 12% grade, I eagerly anticipate the coming spring. While I'm watching eight video screens simultaneously, ear buds in place channeling the driving rhythm of The B-52's "Love Shack" to keep my pace, I am fantasizing about the approaching warm weather and my escape to the outdoors once again...and my return to my beloved hill.

So,as you struggle with your fitness routine through the winter months, consider the possibility that when the spring finally comes, and you unleash your profoundly fit body on the outdoors, glorious and unimaginable adventures may await you.