The price of performance

I remember when I first started rowing my mother said I needed to be careful that I didn’t over develop my legs or else I would have a hard time finding pants that fit like my father apparently does. My father rowed at The University of Southern California and through that and running later on in life has built up some rather strong and thick quads. I on the other hand have been flaunting my chicken legs for about as long as I can remember. I wouldn’t say I’ve got weak legs, at one point during college I was pushing upwards of 7 or 8 hundred pounds on the leg press and always did well with squats but the legs just never really got all that large.

Lately though I’ve started to notice a bit of increase in both the tone and size of my quads, and calves for that matter. With all of the biking and running I’ve been doing lately it’s only natural and the core class is certainly helping with the toning. The other week though for the first time I noticed that some of my favorite jeans are starting to get a little bit tighter around the quads. At first I figured it was just that just came out of the wash tightness, but I’m coming to realize that it’s actually because my legs are really getting bigger.

Walking up the metro stairs (I can’t handle standing still all the way up), I can feel my legs pushing out on the fabric and I think if they get much bigger I may have to retire a few pairs of my most comfortable jeans. I’m not complaining really since I’ll gladly take larger stronger legs if it aids in my performance, just a general observation and a little bit of shock that, “hey, maybe Mom was right” as usual…