Feel the Burn

I haven't posted for a while, 'cause a strange thing happened, I have done absolutely nothing cool in the past week. We have not had waves for a while, and due to driving my daughter to school, foggy mornings, small waves, working, or a combination of them all, I have not been able to get in the water. I have actually resorted to the fact I had to....wait for it....work out (yikes!). In high school I was pretty tall and skinny (understatement). I found my first drivers license the other day and it said 6'1" and 135lbs, not kilos, lbs. Needless to say, I didn't spend much time in the weight room at school. My brother, on the the other hand, got an entirely different set of genes. He was a wrestler, and then a dedicated gym rat. I was a swimmer throughout high school. There is nothing hotter, and nothing gets the ladies, like a 6'1", 135 lb dude in a speedo. Let's say I wasn't very Phelpslike. After 38 trips around the sun, unfortunately the lbs seem to come fast and furious! I have found if I go any amount of time without some kind of physical activity, I get very, shall we say, for lack of a better term, 'lethargic'. I don't know if this a testament to my passion to be active, or more likely, my body's desire to be lazy. And football season, you aren't helping matters. "Hey, Babe, the wide receiver for USC is also 6'5" and 205lbs!" "Honey, I think he must have different kind of pounds than you."


I have given up going to the gym for a while now. I have had memberships at a few different giant local fitness centers, and cannot stand any of them. Maybe I might have sat in Gigantor's puddle of sweat one too many times. You know the guy, gorilla like, wearing his black, tight, obnoxious TAP OUT, AFFLICTION, or other equally testosterone laden MMA t shirt. Or I end up watching the hottest piece of arse in the gym do absolutely NOTHING at all, for over an hour, all the while dressed like a Hawaiian Tropic model, and getting hit on by Gigantor. Pole dancing must be quite a workout in itself. I do miss the pool though. I miss the great full body workout I get from swimming. Until Martha and Edna are already doing their 'laps'. By laps, I mean they are walking, yes walking up and down the lanes.....their own, separate lanes, and there are only four!


So a few years ago I set up a small gym in my garage. I have everything I need: a treadmill, a universal gym, a bunch of dumbbells, and a Total Gym (yep, endorsed by Chuck Norris. It actually is my favorite piece of equipment for training for surfing. It is one of the few exercises machines that actually works as well as advertised. And growing up in our household in the 70's and 80's we had all the crappy stuff.) I made a deal with myself that if I didn't surf, I would spend some time with the weights, actually moving them. So believe me when I tell you, I am definitely praying for surf. I will need the calorie burn for sure, because as a scuba diver too, I realized lobster season opens tomorrow, and my buddy and I go for our first limit catch Sunday night.