Seriously, I used to be in Shape.

Me, pre-Walrus: Triathlons, marathons, lots of strength training.





Me now, aka 'The Walrus'




Now you might be asking yourself: "Self, what the @#%@#$ happened to that guy!"

Well, a few things:

1. I started to play poker. Poker is not conducive to staying in shape. You basically sit around a table all day and eat cheeseburgers.
2. I ruptured my L5/S1 vertebrae/disc in my lower back. Not much fun. Hard to walk, run, do anything really. Had a discectomy (surgery) to repair it, but it's still problematic.
3. I got married to darling-darling. Which is great, except she's part Polish, part whatever. Translation: Macaroni and cheese for breakfast, Tuna Melt for lunch and Fried chicken for dinner. Seriously though, 'occasionally' we're a bad influence, diet-wise, on each other.

So, my pathetic, cliche-in-progress new year's resolution is threefold:

1. Compete/run in the Seattle half marathon in June/2009.
2. Ace the Marine Corps Marine Corps fitness test by Dec 31, 2009. Why the Marine Corps fitness test? Because they include pull ups, my favorite, most treacherous of all fitness tests.
3. Touch my toes. Huh? Touch your toes? Yep, my flexibility is awful, which I'm sure was a leading factor in my back injury. I'd like to be flexible enough by Dec 31, 2009 to touch my toes.

Now, you might be asking yourself again: "Yourself again, why don't you make it a friendly competition with a compatriot?" Well, I've had several 'friendly' competitions with my good friend Mike, weight loss contests, running contests, but after beating him down so many consecutive times, it's not much of a challenge any more. Any takers?

So, today is day 1 of operation 'little bit less of a fat !$%^&*' I went to the gym today and did my standard strength training while also incoporating the hundered push up challenge regiment into my workout. I did a modified version of the pushup workout, where I worked in pullups between sets of pushups. I'm very curious to see how the pushup plan faires when it comes to pullups. Pullups are notoriously difficult to impove upon.

'tis all for now. Wish me luck, 180 days and counting to Seattle!