So I stepped on the scale last week and saw 206.7 and was like, ok, so whatever you are doing isn’t working. Whatever you aren’t doing is working! I will be the first to acknowledge that getting older sucks. The metabolism slows down. You don’t bounce back for more abuse the day after a hard workout the way I used to 3 or 4 years ago. But then again, I can honestly say I haven’t done a “hard workout” in a long, long time. Longer than I can remember. I have done one pool workout with the OTTC like 6 weeks ago and it destroyed me. It was over an hour and I felt like I was going to drown. The old me, would have gone the next week for the same workout, and try to see improvements. The new and not so improved me avoids that kind of embarrassment until he is fully prepared.
Some things haven’t changed. I LOVE biking. I love the feeling of independence on a bicycle. I like cruising, passing people in traffic jams in Old Town Alexandria and I like mashing the pedals along the bike path every once and a while. Every time I am on a bike I say DAMN I miss this. I haven’t done any kind of “bike race” in a long time! My last mountain bike race was just after college. I haven’t raced cyclocross since 2003. And road racing hasn’t been something I have done since 2004. Time certainly does fly when all of a sudden it is almost half way thru 2011 and you realize something you enjoy so much you don’t spend much time doing it. My biking is very sporadic.
So between the struggling to ride, the horrific once every two week attempts to run and the realization that none of my button up shirts for work I can fasten the top button I chose something that I would hope be a change of pace. I have acknowledged the lack of motivation. Races, youtube videos, books, magazine articles, ever a close friends heroic efforts in a race cannot motivate me to get back to training in any kind of normalcy.
So what would any logical person do? Try something you have never done before and see if you like the results. I love that quote that reads something like “if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” so why continue down that path that seems to be a broken one. Well the path is there it just has too many obstacles to make the journey a fun one. So I found an advertisement online for a local martial arts studio that offered a free private 30 minute lesson with an instructor. I do not think anyone in my bloodline has ever attempted Martial Arts before. Well nephew Zachary has tried Tae Kwon Do and liked it but he’s my nephew. It’s not like someone in my family tree before me has passed on some Martial Arts gene to me. I think I just got the potato eating and beer drinking from my Irish roots.
So Friday I went to my first lesson, with the instructor Mike. I loved it, quite the challenge. I am sure I look like a damn fool out there, but I have had that one 30 minute lesson and Saturday and yesterday were hour long group lessons. I can’t even tie my white belt correctly yet but it’s been fun riding my bike to the stupid only a couple miles away, feeling spent, and then riding home. More to follow on that subject as time progresses.
I think my biggest issue right now may be involvement with organizations. I have the following 4 memberships. I have a gym membership. I have a recreation center membership. I have a Kempo / martial arts studio membership, and a membership to the rock climbing gym. The climbing gym I have only been to 4x, and it has been almost 3 months since the last time. The rec center I have swam at twice since I joined in February, the gym sees me 1-2 times a week on average now, but I have this determination to get my money worth with the studio.
Tonight is a great example; I have a Jaycees meeting about a committee I am on that is mandatory. I have a teleconference for another committee today (during my lunch hour) I am on at the Capital Chapter IFMA organization where I am on the communications committee. I haven’t been to a meeting in almost a year but I wanted to go to the Northern Virginia Photographic society meeting in Old Town tonight. The Kempo studio has Workout Wednesday from 730 – 800pm tonight all the while the Bruins face off at 7pm in Game 7. Oh and the Tri Club has group swim at 6pm.
Bruins. Game 7 tonight. 7pm EST. Beasts of the East versus the hated Montreal Canadians. I won’t sugar coat it. I don’t follow hockey at all. There is too much else going on in my life, I didn’t play hockey ever in my life, the Warden ensured I never got injured by putting me in non contact sports. This year I didn’t watch 1 minute of a regular season game. Now I have watched more than 9 playoff games in their entirety and it is still the first round. Hockey is exciting. I really don’t follow the line shifts because I never played, but it is nonstop action. And after seeing the Capitals come back from being down 3-0 in the 3rd period, or the Bruins coming back from being down 3-1 and winning in Overtime, you can’t beat that kind of excitement. So while I don’t think I would consider myself a “pink hat” when it comes to hockey, I really enjoy the playoffs, and you can’t really beat the excitement of a game 7 between these two franchises, who have squared off in more game 7’s than any NHL or NBA franchise in history. Should be a good one!
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