My Fitness History

College and Work

When I went off to college, I was an "intellectual". The focus of my studies were supposed to be literature and film. Pretty early, on as in months, that focus changed considerably. I was running on trails through the hills of the Hudson River Valley and loving it. In high school I was on the cross country team and hated it and sucked at it. I started doing a lot of dance and drama. I joined our school's Ultimate Frisbee team and competed with them against other schools. I backed away from both film studies and literature.

College and me weren't a good fit and I ended up dropping out after a semester and a half, returning to LA. I dabbled in a lot of odd jobs, which included working as a receptionist at a dance/exercise studio in Venice. I ended up taking a lot dance classes, yoga, aerobics and hybrids of the three. I decided I wanted to be a personal trainer. I started working out at Gold's Gym in Venice. Being my age I was all over the map as to what I wanted on pretty much every level. I ended up working in the film business as a set dresser, by route of moving furniture for Starving Students.

Moving furniture is a great workout. It focuses on two things that are crucial to so many things that are physical; grip strength and core muscles. After two decades of moving furniture, those two aspects of my physical being are fairly well developed.

Running

I love running on trails in the mountains and deserts and forests. I like running on the beach. I like running stairs. I don't like running on pavement. I like going for runs of an hour or so once a week or so. I hate running regularly. That may be because I have only been places where running regularly has me on pavement. I love being able to finish marathons. I don't care for 10k's and 5k's are really hard for me.

I did my first marathon when I was 22. I didn't train well for it but I did finish it. It was my hardest, least favorite to date. And I swore I would never do it again. I've since finished 8 more and am looking forward to the next one, whichever one it is.

Running Off with the Circus

When I was in the midst of my odd-job-athon which included ball room dance instructing, dressing up as a live Christmas tree on Rodeo Drive and a handful of retail jobs, I answered a help wanted ad;

Clown Wanted
No Experience Neccesary
Will Train

I of course followed up on it and was soon performing at childrens' parties as a clown. I picked up the skills of juggling and uni-cycling.
Around the same time, I got a job ushering at Le Cirque du Soliel. I was tempted to run of with them or maybe go train in Montreal, but it didn't make sense at the time.

Juijitsu

I dabbled around in martial arts, but nothing really got my interest. Then the first UFC came out and this scrawny Brazilian guy, Royce Gracie beat on all comers. I was hooked. I ended up training with the Machado brothers who are cousins to the Gracies. I would train as much as I could with my crazy work schedule and then I would end up going on location and training would stop for months. At the time the only parts of the country that had Brazilian juijitsu were LA and New York. I would then come back and it was like I was starting all over again. This went on for several years. I got my Blue belt under Rigan Machado but ended stopping because the roller coaster was too frustrating for me.

Four years passed and I was still missing juijitsu. After series of events, it turned out the there was a Machado studio miles from where I was living, and not just an affiliate but one where one of the five brothers, John was the main instructor. I started up again and have been doing it for the last couple of years.

Racing?

At some point years after that first marathon, I started running 10k's. I liked running with a bunch of people. I liked the event aspect of it. But pretty quickly into I got bored. Then I chanced upon the Urban Challenge ( I think that was the first one I did) It was kind of like the Amazing Race but in one city and in one day. I got hooked on these and started doing them with anyone who would race with me. Note: I appreciate everyone who suffered with me in these races, every race was unique and dear to me, so thank you.

Then I got interested in expedition races like the Eco-challenge and the Raid Gauloises, but they took too much time and money for me to get into. And then a mutation of the two happened in the form of races like the Tough Mudder, the Warrior Dash, and the Sparta Race.

The Now

I've collected all of these styles, fascinations, events, training techniques as well as others picked up here and there and am more ADD than ever. In the past couple of weeks I've done a bunch of juijitsu, some fitness kick boxing, juggling, circus class which included tight wire, Spanish web and trapeze, yoga, barefoot running, running with standard shoes, bicycling and Indian clubs. I'll be doing a Tough Mudder in So. Cal at elevation in a few weeks and then the Urban Dash in Atlanta at the end of June. In the next couple of days I'll grab my uni-cycle and pogo stick and start "training" on them.

Stay tuned for more "Fun-ctional fitness" reports. This was an overview, a history. In the future there will be tips and pointers and more fun stuff.

Be Well