Bought some dumbbells today…

B. and I have been (unconsciously?) adjusting our sleep schedules to match each other more closely, so recently I’ve been sleeping later, to about 6 or 6:30am. This creates a problem as far as getting up, showering, going to the gym, showering, driving back to work, etc. goes if I want to get to work by 8:30am. In addition, right now there’s no way for me to get to the gym if B.’s sleeping over, because I have to drop him off at the shuttle to work.

So I figure, if Mohammed can’t come to the mountain, perhaps the dumbbells can come to Mohammed. (Or something like that.) So I went out and bought a set of dumbbells, so I can work out at home. (I figure that, while B. is sleeping in, I can get a good workout in.) I don’t know how much I’ll use them, but I rather suspect I’ll be good about it; I do like to get my workouts in regularly.

It seems sort of strange to think of myself as a fitness nut, because that’s not how I see myself at all. Despite spending six or seven hours a week on the bike, and another three or four in the gym, I don’t think of myself as particularly athletic. My entire athletic experience growing up was being the slowest, smallest kid in the class–you know, the one who always got picked last. I was a couch potato in college. I’m not a particularly gifted athlete even now–I’m slow, I get injured easily, and in general I have to work really hard for the progress I make.

But I have to admit that I’m fairly athletic at this point, and hope to be more so.

It’s a funny thing, this getting-in-shape business: I got where I currently am because I had a goal–to do the AIDS Ride–but once I’m in shape, I find I tend to want to keep it. I don’t want to go back to being a couch potato–I want to be in even better shape than I currently am! I see fitness as a slope leading up and up, with each tier bringing more benefits and higher heights…and I want to climb further.

If only it didn’t take so darn much TIME to get into/stay in shape…!

Speaking of which, off to bed. Tomorrow I try out my new toys. 🙂