Tracking Activity While I was

While I was looking for information on Missouri's State Government page about the override of governor's veto of the Concealed Gun bill, I stumbled across this.

Why not? The dates work - just started, so I signed myself up. I went for intermediate because I found this on Thursday, and, well, with the foot issue, I didn't think I could get five days of cardio in this week. I was right. Seems days are more important than total time. So, I've met my goals this week for that - nothing out of the ordinary.

Tonight I went looking for the national version, The President's Challenge. Turns out, this is even easier because it'll count EVERYTHING I do, from weight training to my weekly volleyball to cycling to even STRETCHING. I filled in my week's worth of info, and I'm 11% to my first goal. This wasn't even a very active week for me.

Why do this? Well, remember those obnoxious physical fitness tests we all had to take as kids? I was HORRIBLE at those. Horrid. Grace, balance, and strength have finally appeared in my life, and, dammit, I want a piece of paper for my efforts. I used to HATE those tests. Here's what I remember.

1) The shuttle run. Shudder. We used to have to drop and carry erasers for this test. I was never. fast. enough. (I was 5' 6" when I was 11 - oversized, indeed).

2) The bent-arm hang. Okay - see #1. You know who excelled at this? Those damned ectomorphs who still weighed 75 pounds. It's much simpler to suspend 75 pounds in the air than 120 or 130 (not sure what I weighed in 6th grade - was slightly chubby but not bad) for a period of time. This is at a time before any of us was actively strength training, so, as you can guess, this was not something at which I excelled either. Then, at any rate.

3) Running the dreaded mile. My best mile time was 8:07. This was my freshman year in high school, and I had been running for a few months before I attempted this. Not terifficly fast.

4) 50-yard dash. See #1. Heather never could sprint. Still can't.

But the one thing I learned I can do is train. With weights. Heavy and hard. I learned this in high school, actually, that same class where I ran the 8:07 mile. And, my skill has gone up some in adulthood when most of these lean/mean kids are now carrying some extra poundage and/or have given up on "play" because they are adults.

So, you see, it's all fun and games now.

hln

Posted by hln at September 14, 2003 09:42 PM | Health/Fitness/Nutrition | TrackBack