6 posts tagged “exercise”

For the second Wednesday in a row, I have had the pleasure of riding my bicycle on a new trail by my house and it feels good to be spending that much time outside again.  This time I headed east instead of west and thanks to that change in direction, I have rode the entire length now.  Knowing what to expect should decrease my time going forward each time I ride.  Plus I am eager to see the trail get more green as we enter the month of May.  At the moment the trees are just starting to bud so there is little shade and everything still looks very gray and dead.  Three weeks from now I am certain that all of that will change.

I managed to exercise in some form fourteen days this month and I am pleased with that total.  If I can increase my cycling to twice a week that will augment the three days a week that I spend on the elliptical machine at work to a total of five days a week where I am doing something physical.  Between the two forms of exercise, I should have a solid regimen.

Yesterday was the best Wednesday that I have had in three weeks.  Why?  It was the first time in three weeks that I was not dealing with car problems.  Sigh.  I fully confess that I am not an automotive person by any means so I have to rely on what mechanics tell me.  This is not unusual today for most people, but that does not make it any less frustrating.  Being at the mercy of someone else is never a pleasant feeling.  Plus when the car in question belongs to my wife and not me, the stress level is even greater.  If I were stranded due to a car problem, I could probably accept it, but when it affects her, then the problem takes on a slightly different concern.  Thankfully all of that seems to be in the past now.

To celebrate the return of my stress free Wednesday, I went for a two hour bike ride on a local trail that runs very near where I live.  I had known about the trail ever since I moved here, but did not get a chance to try it out last year before it go too cold.  Overall I have to say that it was a great ride.  The weather was perfect with just the right amount of sun and wind.  Neither of those two elements were too strong.  Plus the trail itself had a gentle grade with just one slightly trying hill at one point.  Now my plan is to add the trail to my weekly workout in addition to the time that I spend on the elliptical machine at work.

Lately I have been feeling more and more frustrated with my life.  I have no idea if it has to due with me comparing my situation to other people that I know or because I see so little change happening in my life.  Here are some examples:

One person that I know is still going to school and part of me envies his being immersed in that kind of an environment.  To be able to learn something new every week and be asked to think is something that I miss in my life.  My job does neither of those functions and reading on my own is not enough.  I need more of a challenge.  Sadly I can not leave my job when I am busy paying two mortgages.

Another person that I know purchased an iPhone and I have to say that I was impressed by the device.  As for me, there are a number of computer / tech things that I want to do, but never seem to have the time to do them.  For instance, I want to use my digital camera more so that I can experiment with HDR.  I want to purchase a new larger external drive so I can download more scanned comic books.  I want to transform my old Apple Blue and White G3 machine into a Linux music server.

Physically I am doing fine.  In fact, I would almost go as far saying that my exercise regimen is better than ever. Tone has started to return to my stomach and I am looking forward to being able to ride my bike again in a month or two.

I am proud of myself, because despite the fact that bitter cold has descended on the state and will linger for the next few days, I have managed to finish reading my first book of the year and kept a steady regimen of exercise going this month, both of which were goals of mine for this year.  Having finished Pullman's The Subtle Knife, I am not sure if I want to continue right into the third part of the trilogy or not.  I enjoyed both the first and second books, but part of me would like to switch gears into terms of pleasure reading.

At long last I have gotten back into a regular exercise regimen again.  Ever since August, any consistent effort at exercising has been a struggle.  Now that seems to be behind me.  Even with all of the recent holiday activity, I've been able to spend time on both the stationary bike and the elliptical machine.  My next goal is to start reading books more frequently.  I have plenty of choices at hand, I just need to set aside some time each day like I do for exercise.

Sundays seems to be good days for me to exercise and I like that pattern.  Now if only I could extend that discipline to carry over into the middle of the week, then some serious progress would be had.  I have a few ideas as to why my drive seems to taper off once I am at home.  The biggest deterrent would be that I don't have an extensive array of exercise equipment sitting at my house to motivate me.  Yes, there is a new gym within walking distance of my place, but I'm not sure if I want to explore that option, because I'm not all that comfortable about exercising in public.  Perhaps that might sound strange, but when I use the gym at work, there is no one else there except me and I like it that way.  In my opinion there is something odd about sweating in the company of strangers and the last time that I ever did any public form of exercise within the confines of a room was probably the semester of weightlifting that I took in college.  Even that was different, because we were all roughly the same age and had about the same goal in mind.  We wanted a good grade.

I suppose that if I went to the gym there would be the appeal of attractive fit women around me, but that might be too much of a distraction for me.  Passing a good looking woman on the bike trail is not the same as being within talking distance of her as we each sweat for half an hour.  Obviously there are people who see a gym as a means of dating, but for me that would just get in the way of why I am there.   I also think of the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine meets Jimmy, the person that talks in the third person much to her confusion.  Meeting a female version of Jimmy would be very disturbing.  Nor do I want to be the guy ogling the women as they do their routines.  It was okay in college when we were all the same age, but now I would be the thirty something guy gawking at the twenty something women and I don't think that I would appreciate that label.
...
I did some poking around on various message boards and found out that very few people if any are pleased with what Bruce Jones is doing with Nightwing.  Most of the posts that I read cited his run as the all time low point for the character and I'm not sure why they are so offended.  I guess no one can write Grayson the way that Marv Wolfman did two decades ago and that probably explains why DC is having him take over the writing chores in a couple of months.  I am curious to see if Marv can live up to the hype or if his supporters will be making excuses for him.
...
Years ago Erik Larsen started his own comic book at Image called Savage Dragon.  I think that I was vaguely aware of this when it happened, but this was also during the time when I was drifting away from collecting any comic books.  During the middle of the 1990's, there was very little being offered that I wanted to read and I had lost almost all interest in the medium.  So in other words I was late to the party when it comes to the green skinned policeman with a fin on the top of his head.

Since that time I've read a fair number of issues of the book to get a taste of what Erik is trying to do and in some ways I can see the appeal.  Characters have died and stayed dead unlike the revolving door policy often seen at the Big Two.  Plus there is the added bonus of the same creator pouring his heart and soul into one creation for year after year.  These are his ideas and his alone.  He does not have to answer to an editor and or any marketing people.  He is simply creating what he feels is a great story through words and pictures.

Sadly he hasn't been able to maintain my loyalty for any length of time.  More often than not I scoop up a pack of back issues through an online auction rather than reading the book on a monthly basis.  However, he did manage to lure me back recently by finally releasing the origin of the Savage Dragon in a stand alone issue.  Having read it, I can't say that I was disappointed by the story, but at the same time it didn't excite me that much either.  Perhaps if Erik references that story in the future and expands upon it, I will be more satisfied with it.