Pumping Up....Working Out.....Getting Fit!

Those of you who know me well, know that I am short (5' 7" on a good day.....and I mean a really good day), fairly skinny/trim, and not that strong. As a friend of mine wrote in his journal when we were back in middle school, "Scott is a great friend, but he is very weak!" I do like to view myself as pretty fit and in exceptional health, but that doesn't change the above assessments.

Clearly this has been a point of some self-consciousness over the years and a self-image issue. I have some thoughts on the deep-seeded subconscious psychoanalytical reasons for this, but I won't bother you with the therapy session now. While I can't affect the height as much as I've tried, and the weight is actually in a very good place (about 14-15% body fat right now, which I would like to reduce to under 10%), I do want to work on getting stronger, fitter, etc.

About two and a half years ago, I signed up for the gym through my previous employer and had the option of going to any New York Sports Club in the area. I found a very nice one right close to Penn Station in New York and began going to that facility. At first I was doing great. For about the first six-seven months, I was going at least twice a week and noticing considerable improvement in my strength and definition. However after these seven months, my dedication started to waiver and the amount of visits decreased until weeks or even months would go by between visits. A lot of this had to do with the increase in my work schedule. As I was advancing within my company it was more and more common for me to be working 12-14 hour days. With the 1 1/4 commute home, I never wanted to go to the gym after work, and by the time I got home and actually relaxed for an hour or so, it was so late that waking up early wasn't what I would call my ideal option. Now I understand that if I really wanted to...I could have gotten up and gone to gym each day. I fully believe in self-responsibility and the fact is that I chose to sleep over getting up early and chose going home after work instead of going to the gym. As The Zep says, "Nobody's fault but mine."

But alas, these late hours were part of the reason that led to my move (a very slight part, but one none-the-less) and when Mel and I were looking for apartments, one of the key factors for me was whether the complex had a gym. Well, the place we chose has a fantastic gym with every piece of equipment that I need/wanted, from free weights to machines. I figure that having a gym like this adds about $100 or so of theoretical money to each month's rent that I was literately throwing away when I was in New York. Now that I have a gym in the complex within a five minutes walk I feel I will be consistently exercising. So far, I have used the gym every single day and with its great hours, plan to keep using it every day even once I start working. This a goal of mine, part of the personal changes I want to make and I plan on keeping it.

I also look forward to being able to run more often. One thing I can say that I am proud of is that I do consider myself to be a runner. Now I should give a quick shout out and say that if you want to read about a true runner, you should check out the blog of one of my best friends, Jared, who is training for the Iron Man. His blog is at: http://tri-guyj.blogspot.com/

Anyhow, back to the real star of this blog. I have been running consistently for about the last year. At my longest I have run around 10-11 miles and at my fastest got up to consistent 7:30-7:45 miles. My goal is to run a half-marathon in the nearby future and to one day run a full marathon. The weather here is beautiful and the layout of the town is perfectly ideal for me to continue and improve on my running.

So there you have it, along with trying to keep myself emotionally and mentally fit, I am also using this move to keep myself physically fit as well. I look forward to keeping you up to date with the progress and hopefully I can blog about some road races in the future. Ok...enough for now. I shall blog with you later.

-Nice Guy SMA-