Category Archives: goals

Starting Over

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Have you ever wished that life had a “do over” button?

When I was younger, I used to say, literally, “This is my life. No regrets. I am who I am today because of what happened yesterday. End of story.”

Do I still believe it? That’s a hard question to answer.

Yes, I’m a product of my past, so at least that much is true.

But do I regret any of my past? Maybe the answer is “It doesn’t matter, even if you do.”

As a famous meerkat once said, “You got to put your past behind you.”

Tonight I’ve got the whole evening to work on writing new music. My wife has graciously let me out of the house (and agreed to watch the chiluns). But I’m tired and having a hard time getting inspired. So I’m blogging instead, for now.

I’m hoping this whole process will inspire me – and you – to remember that “life’s a dance, you learn as you go…”

PS: Anybody else getting freaked out by these crazy “appeals” on Wikipedia?!?!

Do over button image: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCPDB0QlqNs

P90X and Climbing

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A very good friend of mine recently recommended that I try working out with the P90X home fitness video series. He was so serious about having me give it a shot that, for my birthday, he bought me a pull-up bar. Why I all that interested? Nope. Do I like home fitness videos? Definitely not? But do I want to improve my climbing ability? Absolutely.

Some of you may remember that my first post of the new year (2011) was a set of new year resolutions. You can read ’em HERE. One of those resolutions was to climb 5.11a. Basically, it’s a difficulty rating system used by climbers and anything rated 5.11x is right in the middle of it – not too easy, not too hard. So all in all, I set a humble, moderate goal of being able to climb about 1/2 of all routes.

I’ve only done two sessions/days of P90X and, so far, it has spanked my pants off – hard. On the third day, yesterday, I went climbing at Devil’s Lake. I was sore, but was able to pull off a couple of good routes fairly cleanly – a couple 5.8’s and a 5.9. (Devil’s Lake ratings are stiffer than anywhere else I’ve climbed, so a Devil’s 5.8 is really at least a “real” 5.9 and a Devil’s 5.9 is at least a “real” 5.10a.

A few months ago – back in May, when I was climbing more regularly (READ: before our second child was born), I was easily climbing 5.10b and was close to climbing 5.10c. (The steps from 5.10a and 5.11a are: 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, 5.10d, and 5.11a.) I feel like I’ve taken a small step backwards, but still hope to be able to accomplish my goal by year-end.

So the hope is that P90X helps to round out my training, so that I’m not *just* climbing, which has pretty much been the case for a while now. I’ve been feeling like a slug, and, with the exception of a handful of runs between today and this past May, it’s been all I’ve done.

I’ll fill you in on how I’m doing in the coming weeks…