I have been chatting with one of the Partners at the Firm that I work at about his passion with running.  He’s in his early to mid sixties and if I could possibly be in as good shape as he is in, and, mind you, I am at least 20 years his junior, I would be very happy.

We have a full gym at my office on the 4th floor, complete with shower facilities.  I have not, in the year and a half that I have worked at BDO taken advantage of this excellent area.

Over the last few months, I have been wanting to try to get into better shape.  I have been eating healthier, more vegetables and fruit and I am trying to eat less processed food.  It is tough making these changes, that is for sure.  I have cut out most “junk” food, chips, ice cream, crap like that – stuff that I love to eat but stuff that has no real value.

In speaking with this Partner, I have decided to take up running.  I used to do it, a number of years ago and quite because I didn’t really have good shoes and I got bad shin splints.  I quite enjoyed it, other than the shin splints so I have decided to try to do it again.  We have at least one treadmill in the gym at work so that will be a good place to start.  If I get tired, and I am sure I will, it is MUCH easier to turn the treadmill off and then I don’t need to walk back the 100m from where I started.  🙂  Well, I think I will make it longer than a 100m, I hope so anyway.

I do have an immediate goal.  By Spring, and by the term Spring, I mean Spring in Calgary, sometime in May, not March 21 which is officially the first day of Spring – I want to be able to run 10km.  I think, with a little determination and some hard work, I will be able to get there.  JS (the Partner I have mentioned) has offered his encouragement and help with getting a program off the ground – much appreciated and I will take him up on his offer, for sure.

He suggested that I visit The Running Room in Calgary to get myself a pair of shoes.  They would see what type of step I have and could suggest a number of different pairs for me to try.  The pair that I got were even on sale:

They fit great, feel awesome and unlike another pair I tried on, they don’t feel like they will fall off of me when I step.  They are Mizuno’s, I have a few pairs of those (turf shoes ) that I have used when coaching baseball.

I also have been riding my bike, not as much as I would like to have, but I am hoping to use it more next summer, riding to work, etc:

It is a GT, 29″ tires make it a litter easier to ride on the road and it has front shock lockouts so when road riding it doesn’t bounce along.  It is also great for trails and off-road, not that I have done any of that.  I still need to get myself a helmet before I really get into it, but with cold weather on the horizon, this will wait until Spring.

Anyway, wish me luck on my goal – 10km by Spring.  With some hard work and some determination, I will be able to do it.

Progress reports on here, I am sure.