2009: the year of the workout

One of the more important ’09 resolutions/goals was to improve my health.  One of the obvious ways to do that is to start exercising.  Let me give you a brief background on how I’ve done in recent memory with working out:

• bought a one-year membership to Bally’s Total Fitness after graduating college; never used it
• broke my wrist and had surgery, effectively ending my 2008 athletic season; that didn’t help things
• I went up the stairs in the River Centre on Saturday before the Minnesota Wild game; I was thoroughly winded.

Pathetic.  That is the one word that describes my workout ethic in the last 17 months.  I’m honestly surprised I don’t look like this.  Because I don’t, I have a chance to get back to where I’ve been before a few times.  I don’t doubt that I can get there, it’s about maintaining and improving.

Last night, I tried to go to bed early: fail.  To get myself tired, I figured a few push-ups and sit-ups would do a body good.  I did 20 sit-ups, and 16 push-ups, all 20 and 16 were a complete struggle.  I don’t mind that I can only do 20 and 16, it’s just a reminder of how far off I am.  I plan on doing at least X sit-ups and X push-ups every night and/or morning.  I don’t want to join a gym until I’m much further along in this process, plus, I don’t want to be at any gym during January and February with all of those people that have ‘getting in shape’ as a New Years resolution; it makes the gym too crowded.  You do get to see who will make it and who won’t.

There’s another reason why I want to get in better shape.  Sometimes, to motivate people, you need to put something on the line.  Since improving my health for the short and long term wasn’t enough, my friend Brian thought of a good idea: sign up for a race.  5k? 10k? Half-marathon?  Of course, there would have to be a wager to make it competitive versus each other; that has yet to be determined.  Brian sent me an email with a link to the Minneapolis Marathon, which has a half-marathon and a 5K, on May 31, a day before my birthday.  What a birthday present to give myself; finishing my first race, and to beat Brian in whatever wager we have.  Whenever I’ve been in top shape, I’ve despised running with a passion.  Since I’ve posted this, consider this to be my way of saying ‘yes, I’ll run in a race with you on May 31.’

Here are some questions for you:

• How many of you have ‘getting in shape’ as your resolution?
• Did you join a gym?
• What workout(s) do you do or are planning on doing?
• For someone who’s never trained for a race of any size, what kind of training regimen do you recommend?

Wish me luck, here goes workout #2.

~Jason Douglas

twitter: @jasondouglas