This post is primarily for me.  So if you are not interested in my physical fitness, pass on this one.

i am hoping to potentially embarrass myself if i don’t stick to my new regimen for i am a superb procrastinator and a champion slug if i allow myself the pleasure of not working out.

i have been a super slug for about three months, resolved to turn it around and two days after beginning to actually  work out, went down hard for three weeks with “asthmatic bronchitis.” i’m still not fully recovered, but i am very tired of being a slug.

i also have noticed almost every man my age can’t run. They have had hip replacements, knee replacements, replacement replacements, heart problems, back problems, or strokes (Pete Thomas and Bob Schoultz, i’m not talking about you two). Although i’ve got my share of old man banes, they are minor in nature compared to my friends.

Doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, my friends who are much more knowledgeable about such things as working out than i am, medical journals, family, other friends, and at least two dozen people i’ve passed on the street including two homeless guys, and a crow, have told me old men shouldn’t run: too hard on their old bodies, things break.

So naturally since i am a pocket of resistance, and in a way because i want to do it for my friends, i have started running again.

i plan to regularly post my progress here. It is not for any who might read the status. It’s because i know you can read it, and knowing that, i am vain enough to not miss on my schedule. So you might say this is for me.

i have done a walk/run four times in the last two weeks. Streets around my house are hilly. i let that keep me in my slug state for quite a while, but now, i have returned to an old route of mine. It’s 3.25 miles round trip. i have begun a plan. i run from the house until i it hurts. Today, i went past four minutes, about three-tenths of a mile. i plan to increase this a minute a day until i am running the entire length.

After that, i plan to continue to pick up the pace and extend the run until i’m running about six miles in less than fifty minutes. That is the time i used to run about six miles from the Naval Amphibious School to the beach barricade for North Island and back.

When i have run/jogged my goal for the day, i will continue with my version of the “Sprint 8,” which my physical fitness expert, Pete Toennies introduced me about four years ago. The regimen requires sprinting all out for thirty seconds and then walking at a comfortable pace for two minutes, repeating the sequence eight time. Today, i ran for four minutes, and the began the sprint eight routine, but walking for five minutes rather than the program’s two minutes. When completed, i walked about another one-and-a-half minutes: 0:51:02 total.

i feel good. i think it’s time for a nice glass of wine.