Going back to the beginning

A little sore from my bodyweight workout, and still able to feel Sunday's run in my legs, I decided yesterday was a recovery day. I walked, instead of running, for 45 minutes.

It reminded me of how I started this whole journey.

All my adult life, I've struggled with my fitness, but it wasn't until 2004 that I decided to make serious strides to do something with it. Things were quiet, at work, and I started going to the gym every day an hour before lunch. At first, all I did was walk. It started me down a road that took me to running a 10-K in April of 2005, wearing sizes I could last fit into a decade back.

Of course, I made mistakes, I got lost on the road, and I lost all that fitness and more. But here I am again, in 2007, making steady strides in the right direction, with even more "wisdumb" of what works and what doesn't.

There was a strange feeling of returning to the beginning as I sweat out those minutes at a brisk walk. A sense of accomplishment and yet acceptance of the fact that this is all a cycle -- that we advance, we fall back, we learn and we forget ... but until the ticker runs out, we still have a chance to do the right thing.