Health and Exercise Goals for 2010

I'm going to bandit the Coogan's 5 mile tomorrow. $22.00 is a bit steep for me right now, so is the course. No flat places on this loop, not one.
Thomas is running, we are meeting at my place before the start. I'll mosey along with the crowd, dropping out just before the finish. Going to be a beautiful day, last year it snowed.

Anyway, up to 33 crunches in a minute, 38 push-ups. I've found that by doing three sets of 12-15 of either about 3 times a week lets me increase the number I can do in one set.

Hope you feel completely well soon, George. ~~There is no prouder moment for a parent than watching his kid do something new on their own ~~~ it's also the most terrifying moment, but still... .

Joe(off to do the trots. Wait, that doesn't sound right.)Nation

Thanks, Joe.

Feeling pretty good today. Off to the gym soon with Rhys. Leg day.

Happy trotting, Bandito.

Today is Day 58 of my yoga 60 in 60 commitment.

Really has been a learning experience for me in keeping your word, to others and yourself.

There have been plenty (well, not plenty, but a few) days where I just didn't feel like it, but practiced anyway. No one day is the same anyway, you work with who you are that day.

Once I left work a couple of hours early to make it to a class, because I was going to someone's house for dinner, at the time I normally would be practicing. May not seem like a big thing to some, but the having to decide what was more important was tricky.

Today the weather is really perfect, and I've spent the day gardening. I gotta give those plants every chance before it heats up.
Therefore, it's really breaking up my plans for cooking, cleanup outside, just watching a video, being here, etc.
So it goes.

I have started to do Yoga also. This works well for me. 5am, the name of the show is "Inhale" the music is great and the male yoga instructor seems good.

This is huge.

One thing I found about my journey is that the more I put myself out there and said, "I'm going to ___", the more I did it. It probably at least started off as ego, e. g. you don't want to lose face by telling everyone you're going to join a gym or whatever and then you don't and they all ask you about it. And some of it was (is, who am I kidding?) bragging, e. g. look at what I did!

But either way, it's gotten me to do things. I figure it doesn't matter what the motivation is. Why is not important. How is semi-important. Doing it is the most important of all.

G'morning Jes.

I don't know if I wrote it here, but another aspect of keeping this commitment is that how can I ask someone else to commit to something, if I can't do it myself?

Not in that "well, I did this and such, why can't you do this other thing?" But more in knowing it can really be a challenge, more mentally than physically.

It's like acknowledging the mental part, who jumps in with their 2 cents, but not doing any more than just acknowledging it.

For me it helps to have a goal, a plan to reach it, and a way to track progress.

Plus, it's a great feeling to run a road race and outrun some people half your age.

Yep, definitely. We ask others for commitments all the time (please stay late, etc.). Makes sense to ask them of ourselves on occasion. And I like George's idea, too, e. g. something concrete and measurable.

A vague "I'll get in shape someday" isn't too meaningful, but a specific "I'm running the Brian Honan 5K" has value. Doesn't make sense, though, to say I'll run it in, say, 25 minutes. Makes more sense to say I'll go and run it and do my best. Which may be 25 minutes. Or 45. But I'll get a benefit either way.

PS That race is September 12th.

Good Luck.

I remember some commercial where a guy was running on a treadmill or something.
He seemed to be comfortable at his pace, but he was thinking (you could hear it through the magic of television) something like "I want to stop (I'm bored, I have something to do, whatever)"

Then he thought "Just 5 more minutes", then he smiled at himself and just kept on.

Sometimes that's all you need, you realize you could keep doing it, no big deal.

Sometimes I walk out on a greenbelt, and I'll make sure I walk far enough out that it's a nice challenge on the way back.

I've said to myself on the way way "I don't want to walk any more"

Then I say "Tough. How else are you going to get back to your car?"

chai (well, I guess I could just decide to live in the woods) tea

Yep - I find destination walking to be helpful -- makes more sense to me to say, how can I get to work or the drug store or whatever if I can't hoof it.

Not that I don't walk on treadmills, but I do that more in order to work out when the weather is particularly icky.

70 is the new 50, push-up wise...

Wow!

Go Reege!

So impressed. I'm working on forty.......I do 33 really beautiful sleek ones and then, 34, 35 not so much 36, 37 are kind of ugly, 39-39 are still waiting in the wings.
Joe(feels so good when I stop)Nation

nice -- keep at it, joe.
the pattern won't change much as the amount slowly increases.

some days i hit the last one and think 'hmmm, i could do another one' -- but i don't.
other days i'm about 10 short and think 'no effin' way' -- but i struggle thru and finish...

I saw him doin' 'em this morning

PS I've joined the local Y (I was having trouble getting motivated to the old gym; the Y is a 10 minute walk away). I went swimmin' yesterday.

Eek, I need swimming lessons.

Oh, yeah. Take some. Years ago when I had a triathlon in my head (I've since wised up) I took about two months of lessons.

I thought I knew how to swim, but I really didn't. I learned the S-stroke, learned how to do a lap by just kicking, (whew) and, most importantly, I finally learned how to breathe on every third right hand stroke.

The Y had a Summer Long Triathlon--
you posted each day how many laps of swimming, how many miles of biking (machine or actual) and how many many of running (treadmill or actual) you did every day from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
Everyone could see who was leading......or falling behind. It was really fun, about 80 people from 25-60 took part.

I was fat and 45. I learned I could do 80 laps of the pool, run 6 miles around the tennis courts and baseball fields and do the bike machine for 25 miles in an hour. (About the same as I could do on a actual bike at the time.)

I came in fourth.

Joe(I wish I had a pool, well, I do, but ...but..but)Nation

With Summer in bloom I have been swimming 3 days a week. This is the best thing I do for my health and body tone.

ok, if 76-year old George Takei can do 100 push-ups at a time, surely i can do half that many.

so, as a new year's resolution, i'm going to start doing "Age Push-ups".

48 push-ups every day until i turn 49, then a full year of 49 per day,
etc etc etc. ...

started working my way up two weeks ago.

began with a few days of 20, increased it by 5 every few days.
this morning i did 45.

i am ready...