Sit and Reach

Remember those "Presidential Fitness Awards" you could earn in elementary school by being a mad-fit child? You had to run a fast mile, speedy sprints, stretch, complete a ridiculous amount of sit-ups (yes, I remember the time before they introduced "the crunch" to us as "the new sit-up") and pull-ups.

Yeah, I never was up to Presidential fitness levels.

(I was the fastest girl in the mile in 2nd grade, though. I remember being pretty proud of that. Then I broke my leg in 3rd grade and became the slightly chubby, slow girl for the remainder of my elementary and middle school years.)

I did, however, excel in the "Sit and Reach." Which was, by far, the least athletic of the challenge. You had to sit with your legs straight out in front and your feet flat against this funny box with a piece of plywood on the top. (Did everybody do this in elementary school?) Then you had to stretch your little body forward to touch your little fingers on the highest number possible on the ruler painted on the plywood.

All those years at Tilley's Dance Academy must have paid off, because I was almost always the most flexible in my class. I laughed a little (internally, of course, because I was very polite) at the fit, fast boys and girls who kicked my butt in every other category, but couldn't even reach their toes.

All this reminiscing about the Sit and Reach (what an ingenious title, by the way) is because I think I need to spend a little more time stretching now. I love yoga, pilates, ballet, and all endeavors that value stretching, but I just haven't gotten around to much of it lately. My right calf has been tightening up (strangely enough, not while running, but while doing everything else) and bothering me a bit and I think a little more stretching might just do the trick!

It's funny how easy it is to say things like that (and like that I'm going to run 4 miles in 90 weather, today...yeah, didn't happen) and how I still don't always follow through. This should be a pretty easy goal though.