August 3, 2006
I was walking Frodo this morning and I saw a woman running, pushing one of those running strollers. I continued my walk and she eventually lapped us. She stopped and petted Frodo and let her son pet him and then she was off.

I walk Frodo 2 or 3 times a day, so I know my subdivision really well. I'm pretty regular, too, so I know who most of the runners are. There's Terry, who's amazingly consistent. She's a friend of ours. There's Fred, who runs sometimes with his two dogs. There's Annemarie down the street, who for some time could be seen running with her daughter in the running stroller pushed by one hand and her 3 dogs on a leash in her other hand, an absolutely stunning example of competent multi-tasking. There's some guy who started out slow and heavy and now is thin and fast. There's another woman who lives one street over who's just started running. She runs with her CD Walkman and she's slow, but I admire her determination.

My wife's a runner. I was trying to get back into that again, but my Achilles doesn't like it, so I've happily taken up biking. And for the last year I've been religiously going to the gym. I also study Sanchin Ryu karate, although just how much of a work out you get from that is up to you, the classes are mostly about technique. So in a way, I'm a born-again jock. I've lost about 25 pounds in the last year and I'm determined to continue exercising forever. It's a part of my life now.

At the gym I often see people who are enormously overweight or out of shape and they're there, plugging along. I feel like cheering for them.

From time to time my workouts are bad. They feel horrible or I can't complete my routine. My wife will come back from some run complaining how crappy it felt. Invariably one of us will comment,"That's not the point. The point is just doing it."

I think this is true for most things in life. Woody Allen was probably right, 9/10 of success is just showing up.

I know that when it comes to writing, over the years there would be days when I didn't feel like writing or I was really busy, and I showed up at the computer and did some writing anyway. I used to tell myself, "Do one page. One page a day is 365 pages, which is a novel. You can do at least one page." And it worked. And typically once I got that page down, I was in the groove and could do more. Sometimes it was a struggle and I only made a paragraph or two, but there it was.

It was also kind of unpredictable. I wouldn't feel like writing, I'd go ahead and write anyway, and most of the time it felt great. Sometimes it didn't. But I never knew until I sat down and did it. Same goes with exercising, I think, which is not really the point of this blog today.

The point, in case you missed it and need me to hold your hand, is just like the Nike ads: Just do it!

Best,
Mark Terry