This deserves its own post

From this month's treadmill journal:

Friday May 24, 2013
Distance: 3 miles.
Walking time: 1:18:20.
Actual time: 1:42:00.

8 laps, 4 laps. First 2 miles: 52:05. Another milestone. I'm pretty amazed that I was finally able to do 2 miles without a break. After 6 laps, I didn't think I had enough left to do more than another half a lap or so, but then I flipped a switch in my head and told myself I could keep going. At some point during the next lap, I imagined VRW was there with me. She wasn't doing anything; she was just there. And as unimportant as that may seem, just thinking about her is what got me through the last lap and a half, similar to how her actual presence always seems to make me do things I shouldn't be able to do. I think that was a defining moment in my attempt to beat MS because it made me realize that it really does make a difference sometimes to believe you can do something you realistically shouldn't be able to do. Also, it provided a little more support for my suspicion that having certain people in your life can help you heal and recover. These feelings will stick with me and help me overcome even more obstacles as I continue.

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2 miles is 8 laps. If you haven't followed my walking journals, the farthest I have been able to walk without a break before today was 6.4 laps, and that was way back on April 20. Since then, the best I've done is 6 laps, and that has only happened twice. Usually I can't walk more than 4 laps before having to take a break, although I do make it 5 laps occasionally.

I wonder if this improvement is a result of playing my drums, because I just started playing my drums a week ago. If you're not aware of this, playing a drum set uses a lot of leg muscles--particularly hip flexors--which is precisely why I started playing my drums after nearly 10 years of inactivity. I haven't been using my left leg (for the hi-hat) as much as I'd like to, but I've been working my right leg a ton (on the bass drum pedal). Since my left leg is my bad leg, I might start playing left-footed (which means I'd use my left foot for the bass drum pedal and my right foot for the hi-hat pedal).