At various times in my life, I’ve ranged from being mildly overweight to being in amazing shape. Overweight: when I lived in St. Louis, worked for a Fortune 500 company, and drank after work because St. Louis sucks ass and there was nothing else to do. In amazing shape: whenever I decided to go back to road cycling in any serious way. I used to race in college and high school, and of course, to do that, you have to have some fitness. But I was in seriously good shape even when I wasn’t racing, just riding.

Right now, I’m not in horrible shape: I walk the dogs everyday for about 30-45 minutes on pretty hilly trails, but I’m probably a litle heavier than I need to be, and I don’t really have the cardiovascular endurance that feels awesome. Plus, when I get back from walking the dogs, I don’t feel like I’ve done much.

So, I decided to get off my ass and start running. Running can fit into my schedule; it requires little equimpent; and I work at a place that has an amazing indoor track, so I can do it even when it gets to be -20 here in February. I had this moment of realization wherein I figured that if I didn’t stop being so damn lazy that I was probably putting my long-term health in jeopardy. And that pretty much did it. I ran to Runner’s Corner in Ottawa, got sized up for a good pair of Mizunos, and now we’ve been running, and the dogs come along and seem to really dig it.

So now, the real challenge is sticking with it. Of course, being the bookish type that I am, I grabbed two books to convince me to stick with it (hey, I learn just about everything in books, so don’t knock it!):

* The Courage to Start: A Guide for Running your Life; and,

* No Need for Speed: A Beginner’s Guide to the Joys of Running, both by John Bingham.

In truth, I don’t want to become a world-class runner. I just want to get in good shape and get some relief from the stress of coming up for tenure, writing a book and two articles, teaching 3 classes, doing a weekly radio show with a few thousand listeners, and mananging a press. Hopefully, it’ll help. And hopefully writing about it here will make me feel like a loser if I decide to bag it all.