Recently, I’ve decided to become a Certified Personal Trainer.   The American Council of Exercise (ACE) has a very thorough manual on what it is to be a trainer, anatomy, physiology, exercises, working with clients and evaluating progress.   I haven’t read a data-dense book like this in years.  Re-developing good study habits and learning something completely new has been very challenging.  I haven’t had to make flashcards and take real notes in several years.   But, it is all coming back to me and shouldn’t be that hard to learn.

I’ve considered it for several years and had support from my significant other but just never really pursued it out of fear of losing the stability I have with IT.    However, after reading “One Person/Multiple Careers” by Marci Alboher, I decided it was time to branch out a little and just give it try.

Another influence was a good, and very fit, friend of mine also started studying for the exam and already has his own company established to start training people to be more fit.  On Demand Fitness.

I’ve had a lot of positive support from my friends in this pursuit, most of them even said at some point “You should be a Personal Trainer”.  When one hears it from many people many times, maybe it is something to try.

Excuse me, I’ve got book-curls to do.

-Tomas

 Back from the wild and feeling mostly refreshed.   Sitting somewhere in the Mt Hood National forest, having ridding my bicycle to the camp on the previous day, I heard nothing.   Nothing in the sense that there were no interruptions, no motor vehicle noise, no loud music, no arguing neighbors, no man-made sounds.  Just birds, insects and the very distant Clackamas River.

I often wondered what life was like before a constant hum of trucks, lawn mowers, highways, and all the racket that surrounds a busy city.  This gave me another taste of tranquility.

I wrote about the cycling portion of the trip in my other blog, Velophilia.com.

I may try again for a piece of peace this weekend, but we’ll see how much study time I put into becoming a personal trainer.

This holiday weekend, I’m going to be unplugged for 3 days.   I’ll have my cell-phone with me for any emergencies, turned off, effectively making me unavailable the entire weekend.

Why would I do such a thing?  All through out the week, my entire day is dictated by a phone.   I would like several days where I don’t have to be on edge, waiting for that ring.

I’ve done this in other weekends much to the dismay to some of my friends and families but it is by far one of the most liberating and theraputic things I can do.

See you all on the 7th!

I heard Timothy Ferriss speak on a YouTube Posting from Authors@Google and was immediately intrigued by his philosophy.

Even while reading the book I got the impression this was one guy that didn’t have problems getting money to start this ventures and saw things differently than everyone else, which was a bit of a turn off, but his candid nature said that he wasn’t afraid to tackle his dreams that everyone else is too timid to chase.  “Oh, I don’t have time, money, resources…”.  If it really mattered, you would.

His spirit of Euntrepanureship and adventure actually kind of inspired me to simplify and further pursue some of my own goals and wanderlust by simplifying and diversifying my life.

He pushed several ideas that I’ve seen elsewhere and just seem to make a LOT of sense to someone that has been living with the internet jacked into his arm for the last 10 years.  Namely, getting unplugged and not letting the electronic information gluttony rule my life.  Anything that comes in via e-mail that is an actual emergency, shouldn’t be in the form of an e-mail therefore it can wait.  If your parents were killed in a car-crash, would you rather hear it in an e-mail, on the phone, or in person?  Prioritize your communications accordingly.

I don’t want to review every aspect of his book as there are numerous summaries of his writings on his own site and others.

To sum up his book:

Simplify, Outsource, Automate

I would highly recommend this book.

-Tomas

I just canceled my membership to 24 hour fitness. I’ve nothing against gyms or specifically, nothing against 24 Hour Fitness, but it just isn’t working FOR ME. I love getting outside and exercising, getting stronger and sweating my ass off, but there was something a bit depressing about going indoors and running on a treadmill, lifting heavy objects and stretching in a place that was crammed full of people.

But what I have to say was the most disturbing was how even while exercising, people are still “plugged-in”.

Most people on the cardio machines like the treadmill, stairmaster, elliptical trainer or stationary bikes were all wearing headphones and staring at the TVs overhead.   Are we all so ADD-induced that we need to be constantly amused or distracted from our purpose in the gym in the first place?

My primary reason for joining the gym was to make use of their pool which is difficult at times since they often have some kind of class in it or just too many people to get any meaningful laps.  I could get into the pool and have a lane to myself, but it means having to get there late in the evening.  I want to swim when I want to swim.

So, in resolution to this fitness dilemma, I’m going back to my original program of getting outdoors, lifting heavy things like jugs of water, skipping rope, climbing things, cycling, running…

-Tomas

Did you ever have one of those moments, hours really, of odd clarity or a flood of ideas that you absolutely have to get out of your head?  You’ll do weird stuff like type it all out in a spreadsheet, rearrange furniture, take things apart, bolt things to other things or otherwise just experiment?

Yeah, I get that once in a while.  Sometimes it works…sometimes not.

Lately, I’ve had a few hours where I just had to type everything out.  It ended up taking me several hours to get everything out of my head.  Books were scattered about the floor, furniture moved about, something electronic taken apart, and something was bolted to a bicycle.

We’ll see if any of my “experiments” or ideas come to anything.  If they do, I’ll post them on the blog.  Even if they are all complete failures, I feel they are fulfilling in being a creative outlet for my imagination.  Eventually, something will work out well.

-TQ

Aw crap… My sympathy to the runners that have trained their asses off for such a huge event.

The Western State 100 Endurance run was canceled due to the prevelance of forest fires in California.

See the latest news snippet:

Dear Western States Runners,

It is with deep regret that we announce today that the 35th running of the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run has been cancelled, due to the unprecedented amount of wildfires that have struck northern California in recent days and the health risks that have been associated with these wildfires. The Board of Trustees of the Western States Endurance Run has consulted with many of our local and state race partners, including the U.S. Forest Service and the Placer County Air Pollution Control District, in coming to this decision. We apologize to our runners for any inconvenience this decision has created.

I’m nowhere near the level of runner to tackle this beast, but my heart goes out to the runners that are denied this exciting adventure.

I have many goals. Many goals require physical, mental, artistic training to achieve, but each of them require discipline.

I want…

…to finish an Olympic distance Triathlon.
…to run the Portland Marathon.
…to become a certified Personal Trainer.
…to become a professional Tattoo artist.
…to be an artist as a profession.
…ride 300 miles in less than 24 hours.
…hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

I’ll be covering each of these goals in the coming weeks, trying to figure out WHY I want to do them and what I’m doing to achieve these goals.

I don’t expect most of these to be achieved in the next year or two, but each of them define give me something to look to in life. Each one will push me outside of my comfort zone.  Each one will make or break me.

All my goals will be done out of PASSION.

I think it is important to define these goals, think of the steps to be taken to achieve them, and actually follow through with them rather than the off-hand wishes of “I wish I could do such-and-such some day”.

I don’t know the day, but I know the such-and-such.

I’m defining what that THING is to be completed.  I’m setting time-lines in which to complete them.  None are written in stone, but as with all in life must remain flexible to account for injuries, sickness, finances and whatever else life sticks in my way.

After looking at my incomplete list of goals, I have realized that it will take a lot of commitment and discipline.  Changes in my life must be made.

I must, in no particular order,  eat healthy, take care of my body, practice my skills, learn new skills, and eliminate all the noise that will interfere with my goals.

Next Post: Elimination of Noise, Simplifying Life

I ran the Portland Shamrock 5K with my friend Bonnie and her friend Mariam. There were well over 10,000 people there and on this frosty morning it was just a site to see so many people in costume.

I was highly amused to be running down a couple of large pints of Guiness for the entire 3.2 miles.

More Photos

5K - 29:11

GPS Track at MotionBased.com

I went for a run today, despite a sore throat. It was mostly painless due to my practicing of “ChiRunning” that I’ve been studying.

I was quite skeptical at first since it had “Chi” in the title and I initially thought it would be full of spiritual woo-woo, but alas it was full of sound advice of finding one’s balance and minimizing impact to the body. I’m going to finish the book and continue practicing its techniques and see if it can help me achieve a new personal level of running and get me ready for the Portland Marathon.It’s the first run this year where I haven’t felt beat to crap by the end.

Cheers!

-Tomas