One thing I've learned from my two years of pitifully attempting to run is that shoes are everything. When I first started running, I simply picked up some random and fairly moderately priced training shoes. New balance, I believe they were. Big mistake. They didn't fit quite right, and generally made running a horrible experience for me that first year. A sore knee and hip finally convinced me to try new shoes. My next pair I got from a store called "The Running Room". The were very helpful, and did a gait analysis and took a look at my arches. That sort of thing. Eventually I purchased a pair of Saucony's, which were much better. The Saucony's were heavy, though. And wore out pretty quickly. Eventually I found the perfect shoe. Asics Gel Kayano 15's (then later, 16's). For anyone with low arches who needs a moderate stability shoe, this is a fantastic choice. The downside? It's spendy. 130 bucks or so.

Run Time: 26 minutes

Run Distance: No clue

So today is day 1 of tracking my exercise via blog. Huzzah. Being a Tuesday, it means I'm due for a run. I've got a head cold today that I picked up over the weekend, so I'm surprised that I was able to run fairly well today. I ran on the indoor track at the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center (heretofore referred to as the DAHLC) as opposed to running outside or on a treadmill. I hate treadmills, I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere, and I never am able to get a natural stride going. It always feels like I'm a little too slow or a little too fast. Outside is not really an option for me right now either, as I'm asthmatic, and asthmatics don't run well in the cold and wet of a Minnesota March. Also, I'm kind of a wuss like that.

You may have noticed that I don't keep track of my run distance. I've come to the conclusion that it's a somewhat meaningless number. Unless it's an interval run day or some strict training plan for a marathon or something, distance doesn't indicate how hard I ran, or even how good of a workout I had. I used to track my distances religiously, but some guy who's way smarter than me wrote in a Runner's World article that it's a good plan to just track running time. Not distance. The other reason I don't track my distance is because the DAHLC running track is 1/10 mile, and I lose track counting laps...

So this may seem narcissistic but I'm also planning on posting pictures of myself here to track how I look, and how I change as a result of exercise. Along with that, I'll try to post some of my lifting stats and measurements in case someone out there on the world wide internets wants to know how much awesomer they are than me.

My Stats:

Height: 5 foot 11 3/4 inches.

Weight: 190 (taken around noon. I weigh more in the evenings)

Waist: 35 inches

My Pic:

So I had the thought that I wanted to track my exercise progress via blog. I find that I have a lot more success when I rigorously track my workouts, plus it's nice to be able to see what I've accomplished over the weeks, months and now years. Initially I was going to make a new blog, but I realized that I have this old one sitting around, so I may as well re-use it for my new purpose. Besides, it's likely that I'll wimp out and give up on blogging my exercise stuff within a week or two anyhow. No need to create blog-bloat, if you catch my drift.

Anyway, my general workout schedule is as follows:

Monday - Lift

Tuesday - Run

Wednesday - Lift

Thursday - Run

Friday - Lift

Saturday - Run

Sunday - Rest

Hopefully I'll be able to catalog my results and thoughts here, and get them out of my tattered old gym notebook. Time will tell.