Today I was an Olympic Athlete.....

I was on top of the mountain and it wasn't cold because the sun was shining and I was sweating, so the fresh air felt good on my face. The sky was blue, the snow was sparkling, and my body was a well functioning machine. I was a hot gold metal winner on a podium, Sports Illustrated freaking hot in a slutty sports pose on the cover!

I found my 'happy place' today, my moment of zen where all of a sudden it doesn't hurt while working out, my breathing regulates, and my blood flows and it seems easy to do push ups or jump squats for 50 second intervals with only 10 seconds of rest for 30 minutes. I get in the zone. unfortunatly it doesn't happen every time I work out. I often get distracted by other people, my own thoughts, the count down of how much time is left before I am finished torturing myself.

But the mornings I am killing it in Bootcamp, my mind is a million miles away. I flash images in my head until one clicks and I go with it. A method of meditation I remembered from some old self help tape I listened to unsuccessfully as an adolescent actually works now.

My most popular vision is of Hawaii, probably because its the most beautiful place I've actually ever been and experienced, so I can recall the details easier needed to take me there again mentally. I'm running on a beach, its hot, the mountains are in the background, the ocean off to my left. I look great in my bikini, all tan and toned. White beaches, palm trees, salty air, frosty Pina Colada waiting for me back at my beach towel. The works. It works. Before I know it my set is over and I just mentally went on vacation.

When I got bored with that scenario, I began to travel to places I've never really been. Made up places that don't exist anywhere else but in my mind. This method is beneficial and neverending because all the details can be made up by me.

Another favorite is a perfect long country road, green trees everywhere, budding flowers pollinating the air, fields that stretch like the ocean full of an allergy sufferer's nightmare. But I am running and I can breathe. I take in the fresh air and it smells so fucking good. Like the color green or summer or how sunshine would smell if the whole world weren't polluted by our toxic waste. I don't sneeze or wheeze or cough, I can run forever and drink the air in like it was the purest water in the world. Time! Another set is over.

I've been clubbing in Tokyo like I was in a Brittany video and I wasn't scared of the size of the crowd packed into the loft penthouse pulsing to techno music and sweating in unison. Sometimes I'm on stage, like Beyonce in some costume and outrageous heels, and I'm giving it my all because the sold out crowd is demanding their money's worth. Sometimes I'm in a video. Or swimming laps in a very cold Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline behind me. Some days when I just need to get through that last 10 seconds, I pretend I'm dancing(or doing it! ha!) with the finest, best looking man in the entire world and I refuse to let myself stop.

Today, I was an atelete.