Ross A. Laird

It has been slightly more than a season since I began my fitness plan. It seems reasonable to pause here, assess how far I've come, and consider what still remains.

Looking back to my original post about this project, here are the health and fitness issues that seemed most pressing at the time:

Generally low energy, impaired hip flexibility, right hip discomfort, right shoulder discomfort, impaired right hand flexibility (post-surgery, after my skateboarding accident last year).

Let's take them one at a time. My energy is generally much higher than before. I've noticed a basic shift which involves the distinction between tiredness and sleepiness. Previously, I found myself sometimes tired, though not sleepy. These days, I get sleepy (when I should be sleepy) but I am rarely tired.

My right hip remains stubbornly tighter than I would like, though it has become much more flexible and comfortable than before. My right shoulder is also better, and also still twingy at times. I think it's a function of scar tissue, and I'm trying to work it free slowly, without pushing too hard.

My right hand is much improved. As is my overall sense of wellness. Generally, I just feel much better.

In my strength training, I'm working upward to the next level (150 pounds of weight on most machines). My quads still feel weak, but they are coming along grudgingly. The lat pulldown is still my favorite machine.

And I'm closing in on three miles for my post-strength-training run. Yesterday (with the help of the classic Bon Jovi song Livin' on a Prayer, which happened to come on the radio just as I was nearing the end!) I ran 2.85 miles in just under 25 minutes. I felt good: not tired, or winded, or uncomfortable. My next goal, which might take me a while, is to run 3 miles in about 23 minutes. It would be satisfying to make it all the way down to 21 minutes -- three, seven-minute miles -- but I'm not sure if that's reasonable to expect quite yet. We'll see.

Speaking of Bon Jovi: music makes a difference. I have developed the habit of choosing the treadmill closest to the radio speaker on the ceiling, in the hope that something motivational will come on. Guitar-heavy tracks from the 80s seem to work best for me. Stuff that's light on the lyrical content and heavy on everything else: anthems from Bon Jovi, April Wine, Rush, Van Halen, Asia, Tears for Fears. The kind of music I listened to in high school.

Music with more lyrical emphasis -- the kind of stuff I listen to now -- also seems to work alright, but not quite as well. Hard rock anthems seem to be the ticket. At the gym, when I'm running and there is a long stretch of radio ads or songs from Culture Club or Metallica or ZZ Top (my least favorite band), I tend to feel as though I'm not going to make it to the finish.

But then I just remember my fitness anthem:

Whooah, were half way there
Livin on a prayer
Take my hand and well make it - I swear
Livin on a prayer
We've got to hold on, ready or not
You live for the fight, when its all that you've got.

No complications there, no adult complexities. Just simple, passionate drive, the kind of thing to appeal perfectly to a middle-aged guy who still remembers what it's like to feel young. I wouldn't want to go back to my youth, but I don't mind borrowing from that inexhaustible well.