I've never been a very flexible person (literally or figuratively), but the older I get the more I realize how vitally important it is to bend.

True confession: I never stretch, and I never have. I even leave my Body Pump class early before they do the cool down/stretch at the end of class. The instructor always says the same thing "Remember, if you can't stay for this, you NEED to stretch along the way. It helps you recover faster, stay injury free and ...." I'm out the door.

I tell myself I don't have time for it. I have precious little time to exercise, and when I do, I want the most bang for my buck -- cardio all the way. I've tried yoga and pilates before -- bored me to death. And, worse, embarrased me to death because I couldn't even stretch my legs out in front of me and have my knees touch the ground.

Why? Because I am completely unflexible. I've got a runners hammies and quads and they are not long and flexible ... they're short and thick, which is not all that unlike me (short and thick -- or, solid if you want to put it gently).

But, I'm certain my inflexibility is the reason my back is aching from these increasing longer long runs, and it's probably time I force myself to get my butt on the floor and stretch before I end up injured.

I'm going to do my best to work in some stretching in the evenings.

Ah...it's hell getting old.

On another flexibility note: I am proud of myself for becoming more flexible about my scheduled workouts. Used to be that I would never stray from the schedule -- not matter what the weather, how I felt or what I had to do that day, I was running the miles my schedule called for. Period.

Now, I make allowances for weather, for fatigue and for a busy husband. This weekend, I decided to revise my marathon training schedule to better fit my life.

I was trying to do my long runs (up to 15 to 17 miles now) on Saturdays followed by an 8 or 10-miler on Sundays (my training plan actually called for the opposite -- shorter run on Saturday, long run on Sunday, but...that wasn't working because I wanted to long run with friends on Saturday and long runs on Sunday were interferring with church). So...being the hell-bent runner that I am, I was trying to do 8 or 10 mile runs AFTER running long on Saturday.

I gave that up this weekend. It's too hard, and there's a reason all training schedules call for a rest day after a long run (cause you NEED it!).

Now, I'll run Mon., Tue., Wed., and Fri. and take Thursdays and Sundays off. Which will actually benefit my husband (who's training for a 1/2 marathon) who can now do his long runs on Sunday morning.

Everyone's happy now.

Flexibility really is key.