On the comeback trail

My biggest issue when it comes to my workout goals (and many other goals, for that matter) is a lapse in drive when it comes to the moment. I'll plan on hitting the gym after work on a given day, but by the time i'm ready to head out (usually 6-7pm), i'll find that i'm tired, hungry, and/or annoyed and just want to go home. Some days i force myself to hit the gym anyway. Other days (more often than i'd like), i take the easy way out and blow off the workout.

B-storyline (this is related, i promise): Because i am inept, i failed to supress a particular high-school-esque tendency yesterday. I was about ready to head out, and i saw that she was wrapping up her stuff too, so i tried to time it just right so we'd end up walking together. Yes i know, LAME. So lame, in fact, that i came to my senses and decided to sabotage my own effort and kill time by talking to one of my coworkers about some bug he was fixing (i really didn't care, and he probably noticed that i kept glancing down the row as he explained the bugfix). But then i changed my mind again and tried to revert to the original plan, but i got stuck in the conversation and she slipped out. DAMM!

With a sigh i headed out to where i usually park, but the fact that my car wasn't there reminded me that i'd parked in the deck instead. Double sigh. Finally got to my car, tossed my backpack into the trunk, and then tried to stare down my gym bag. I was really torn; i'd planned things right physically - had a nice lunch heavy on protein and carbs (mongolian bbq - mmm), drank plenty of water through the afternoon, chewed down a power bar about an hour before i was ready to go. But i really felt like just going home and working on my songs instead. Fortunately my gym bag won our battle of wills; i slung it over my shoulder and headed towards the gym.

My reward for making the right call was two-fold:

1) As i approached the door to the building, guess who walked through in the other direction? Yep, it was her! We just exchanged a quick friendly greeting, but the serendipity really lifted my spirits. The sequence of me (a) extracting myself from the pointless conversation, (b) unintentionally taking the scenic route to my car, (c) arguing with my gym bag, and finally (d) heading back in lined up *exactly* with the timing of her walking through that door. It's the little things in life, y'know?

2) My workout was awesome.

Over the past month or two i've slowly been working my way back from a rather lengthy setback (close to a year - uggh). It was incredibly frustrating at first - having my arms give out after only half the number of pushups i used to be able to do, finding myself winded and locking up after only 1 mile on the treadmill, etc.

Yesterday i hit my former max distance of 2.5 miles (running between a 9 and 9.5-minute mile). It's nothing compared to you runners out there, but it was great progress compared to where i'd started.

Lifting didn't go quite as well, but i'm at least back to my former weight levels on the few machines i use (and yes, i do intend to switch to free weights sometime soon). And i'm making slow/steady progress on my semi-nightly pushups (not back to last spring's levels yet, but getting there).

Last year i started tracking my progress on my fridge calendar - red ink for cardio or strenuous activity, blue for light/moderate, and blue again for strength (i need to pick up a different color pen to distinguish). I think i'm ready to reinstate my former goal: I want to see red ink on my calendar 3x/week, and blue 4x/week (with stretch goals of 4x and 5x, respectively). It'll help a lot if i can get my old friend/racquetball partner back into our weekly games. Then i'd need only one other regular activity to fill things out.

I'm very much in the "variety of activities" camp because i do not have the patience for a gym-based routine. Every time i've attempted "Ok, gym 3x/week starting TODAY!@#$ HOUGHA!", i stalled out very quickly. Hence the flexibility of red and blue ink - *any* kind of cardio or strenuous activity counts (running, DDR, a long hike with a thousand feet of elevation change, etc). I can keep it going if i have enough things to switch between. Also, i enjoy seeing the synergy between activities. And really, my underlying goal is simply to live a healthier lifestyle. If i were training for a marathon or something specific, i'd probably want a more focused and disciplined routine. But for now, as long as i get to the point where i do *something* useful every day, and *something* strenuous on alternating days, i'll be happy.

Hmm, now i have Rocky training montages running through my head. Here, have a video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8xHjC27YvM

Have two videos:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPbLzu83Ato

:-)