August 05, 2006
Philadelphia 8K, November 19
I just did it. I just pressed the "confirm" button on the online registration, and I have officially signed up. I'm going to be bib number 9161 in the Rothman Institute 8K on November 19 -- the companion run for the Philadelphia marathon.
Yes, it's crazy for me to want to do this; I have the knees of a seventeen year old dog (that's 105 in people years to you and me), I'm carrying a desk job spare tire, and I don't run. But... it's time to start taking things seriously. I got a hell of a scare a year ago this past week... profound enough to where I actually saved the ER admittance bracelet to remind mysel of just what it feels like to be checking into the emergency room thinking you're having a heart attack; that bracelet still is pinned to my cube wall in front of my chair at work. (I didn't write about it here because, well, my mom reads occasionally and I didn't want her worrying... and besides, it's not like y'all have to know everything about my life! ;-) )
And after swearing to the world that I had undergone a priority-changing experience and that I would take the all-clear I eventually got from my doctors -- after months of tests, needles, and bills -- as a chance to sign my second lease and make some changes, I promptly entered the 15 minutes phase of my career and life, started traveling the US and the world, and life got just hectic enough to make it really convenient to use the excuse that I didn't have time to make getting fit a priority.
Yeah, that's a lousy excuse. And I'm not making it anymore. Yeah, it was one of my new year's resolutions... and I did nothing with it for seven months while I followed my pretensions of grandeur. I committed back in February to running this 8K and challenged any of you who felt like it to come run it with me... and then did nothing with it while I traveled and spoke and told everyone that European hotels don't often have fitness centers. But people remembered my promises... and some of them wouldn't let me forget that I'd made them. (Mrs. MU Hoop, in particular, has been staunchly on my hide about this -- due to schedules we've only seen each other like three times this year -- but each time she has asked how the running is going, and when I say I've been too busy, she slugs me a good one on the arm ... not a love tap either, but a real good slug. Odd way to show friendship, but it is genuinely friendship and concern, and if you're reading, Mrs. MU, I do appreciate it -- thank you.)
Finally, two weeks ago, I decided to get serious about this. You don't promise people who care about you that you'll take better care of yourself and then not do it; you don't invite people to run with you and then not try to run. So I went back into the gym, I started hitting the treadmill with abandon and commitment, I started getting up and dragging my ass to the gym at 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning, and I've been there four times a week for the last two weeks. It's a start. I have 106 days left to get into fighting enough trim to run 5 miles. And now I've officially signed up. There's no turning back.
Corey... you're still in, right? Jill, what say you? Nancy? Beav? Erika? And all the rest of you... who's up for a little get-back-into-shaping?
Posted by Christopher at 06:57 PM | Comments (9)January 22, 2006
Get Fit Or Die Tryin'
FoM (that's "Friend of Mudge" for those playing along at home) Corey laid down a challenge a while ago that I said I would respond to... and then of course promptly got nowhere close to responding to. In a post last week, he laid out a challenge to his readers to join the Discovery.com Body Challenge 2006. I signed up... I don't have any expectations whatsoever that this challenge will have any impact at all -- it relies on "meal plans," which are totally unrealistic with the lifestyle of just about everyone I know; who the hell do they think has time to follow meal plans and spend 30 minutes or more cooking every day? But even if I don't follow their little program, Corey's done a good thing by challenging his readers to get fitter in 2006, and I intend to join him.
Frankly, I hate exercising. Always have. Even when I was in playing ball or in the Navy and in my peak condition, I hated working out; I just wanted to go play ball. That fabled "runners high" or endorphin release just has never happened with me, at any point in my life; it's never felt good. By now, all exercise does for me is make my bad knee and bad back ache, and make me uncomfortably sweaty. Far from "getting the juices flowing" and energizing me for the day, it just wears me out and makes it that much harder to get through the day and do the stuff I need to do. I hate the gym like I hate the Yankees or brussels sprouts.
But being a former ballplayer and moderately good athlete, having ballooned into Marlon Brandoesque territory is hard for me to accept... it has a severe impact on my self-image and self-confidence. And in the last six months especially, my body has been rebelling angrily at my lack of discipline and legitimate lack of time (damn high-stress, long-hours desk job!) for any of this junk (thankfully, my latest test results came back and they have finally proclaimed that I'm going to be fine...). So I know I have no choice this year... I have to do it. I resent the hell out of having to go, which makes my already sour mood about working out in general turn even more fierce. So the only way I'm going to actually go through with this !@*#%!@ thing is if folks like Corey turn it into a competition -- because the only thing I hate worse than the gym is losing.
Doc and Tim have run marathons in the past in both Chicago and New York; they have periodically made noises about running another one. I'm not ever going to be a marathon runner; between surgically repaired knees and the fact that even with 8% body fat I'd still weigh 210 pounds (big-boned ain't just an excuse, kids... some of us were born to be large people even when thin), I just don't have the physiology to run 26.2 miles. However... as the Doc has pointed out, the Philadelphia Marathon has a companion 8K run every year. And I think that's something to aim for -- especially given that the run isn't till November 19.
So Doc, Tim... I'm calling you out. You guys are the marathoners, so what about running the Philly one this year? I'm committing to being in shape to do the 8K; I will run it on November 19 if it kills me. You guys are fitter'n me, but we could all stand to do some training, so what say you? As for the rest of the readers here... especially those in the east coast/northeast area... what do you say we extend that Body Challenge for the rest of the year and have a group run of that 8K race? Hell, if I can do it -- me, the 250 pounder with bad knees and an allergy to treadmills -- anyone can. Anyone in with me?
Posted by Christopher at 02:06 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBackMay 19, 2005
The New Number Is....
Eighteen.
Tonight was the night of the weekly "step on the scale" routine at the gym. And the results are in... I am now down 18 pounds total since March 7. Sure, it's going slowly, but it's still going -- especially cool, considering I slipped this past week and ate a Burger King Whopper With Cheese the other night, on top of the Chinese food I had on Saturday. I didn't expect to lose anything at all this week.
But there it was: 18 pounds.
I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal. And it's going slower than I'd like it, of course. But now, I have two fewer pounds to get there. And 18 pounds is still 18 pounds less, which is already an improvement. 18 down, 42 to go. At this rate, I'll be where I want to be by New Year's.
Do you care? Of course not. But I'm psyched, and you're already here. So there. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Posted by Christopher at 10:49 PM | Comments (5)
