It's been 48 hours. Why am I still so sore?
Now, if I was a different kind of person, I'd end the blog right there. I'd write that opening line, and I'd just walk away, leaving everyone to wonder just what the heck I've been doing in my spare time. You could let your imaginations run wild, and start to construct all kinds of bizarre scenarios as to why I'm still sore 48 hours after I did whatever I did. But thankfully, at least for you, I'm not that kind of person. So I'll explain why I'm still sore after 48 hours.
I'm still sore after 48 hours because I went cross-country skiing for the first time this year Sunday.
I know; kinda mundane, isn't it? Here, I'm sure that you had developed all kinds of bizarre or violent or kinky reasons as to why I was still sore 48 hours after doing something, and I had to go ruin it by explaining what actually happened. Sorry about that. Just think of it as another case of reality coming nowhere near the expectations that we set for ourselves. But it's true—because there was a brief window Sunday before the light snow on the ground started to melt and because here it is, the end of February and conditions (at least in Marquette) have not yet allowed me to ski at all this year, I figured I would grab my skis, walk over to the Fit Strip, and get a few laps in.
Which is what I did. And which is why I'm still sore.
Now, it's not like I'm not in shape. Anyone who reads this knows that I'm really active. I run a lot, I work out a lot, and I walk everywhere. Although it sounds very narcissistic for me to say it, I'm in really good shape (especially, you may add if you wish, for someone my age). I should be able to ski four and a half miles without any pain or any problems. When I finished my laps of the south loop of the Fit Strip (the only part with enough snow to groom), I felt great. I felt like I could do a couple of more. And I almost did. But then I remembered a sad fact, gleaned from almost three decades of skiing--
No matter how far or how little I go, I'm always sore the day after skiing for the first time.
You wouldn't think that gliding over snow would be that strenuous, but you'd be wrong. Even though I run three or four days a week, skiing uses different leg muscles. Even though I lift weights three days a week, using your ski poles uses an entirely different set of arm muscles. And because those muscles haven't been used in that particular way since I last skied--last March, before 2020 unleashed all of its insanity—I totally understand why they've been sore for the past 48 hours.
And I didn't even do anything weird/bizarre/kinky to cause it. Sorry to disappoint you. Sorry to be so mundane. If you'd like, if I'm sore the next time I go skiing, I'll make something up. I'll make up a reason as to why I'm still sore 48 hours later, and that fake reason will may very well exceed whatever scenario that you could cook up in your mind.
I promise.
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