Further Thoughts on Fitness

It’s been about a year since I started exercising with more intensity than I had for, well, a very long time. I kept with it for quite awhile. By the time summer arrived, I'd put on a few pounds and that was good. And, by a few pounds, I mean something like ten. I did slack off a little with summer when time was consumed with other activities like mowing the yard, building bookcases, and even taking vacations. Honestly, I'm hoping to put on another ten. That would put me close to my BSU graduation weight.

Fast forward a bit. I had my annual physical a few weeks ago and everything looked good with the exception that my HDL cholesterol (the good kind) was a little low. To fix it, I can a) stop smoking, b) maintain a healthy weight, or c) get regular exercise. Since I've never smoked and my weight is good, that narrowed the options down quite a bit. Anyway, I’m back at exercising and, in addition to re-hitting the weights, I picked up running again.

The running has been good. So far, I've managed to work up to around 3 miles in a run. I'm slow but I'm doing it. I did run cross-country in high school. By that, I mean I participated. I was never very good. I’m still not a big fan of road running, preferring grass, trails, etc. I've been circling the local school grounds in the early, early morning hours. It's actually pretty cool. I can stop for pull-ups on the playground between laps and there's also a good tree line that provides both a good slalom course and zombie-dodging practice. I'd really like to get in a 5k trail run race sometime. There's one locally in October but I’m not sure the schedule will allow for that. Maybe next spring. I probably won’t shoot for much more than a 5k…maybe a 10k. I think I'd find a fast 5k/10k more fun than a marathon. And, let's face it, I'm really training for the zombie uprising. If I haven't made it to a mall/farmhouse/prison/hospital/outpost/etc. within 5k, I'm going to have to stop and make a stand.

Speaking of zombies, the one drawback to the exercise is that I'm hungry all...the...time.