Many of you have set a goal for 2005 to get back into shape! Unfortunately, most of you will conveniently forget your well intentioned desire by mid-Feb or so. In case this might help motivate you, I'll share part of the Exercise Program I created for myself. I originally created this a year ago, and actually stuck with it in 2004. I focused on cardio work last year (after spending the last 9 years traveling every week, doing little exercise, and eating out much of the time). I've updated it for 2005 and am adding strength training to the mix. I use body weight exercises where possible, many of which I can do in my garage or on the road (crunches, pushups, pullups, dumbbell work, etc). Anyway, here is a sampling.

This is my call to arms...

I've studied exercise physiology and believe this is a great strategy.... two days per week on Endurance, Power, and Speed based training. I'm not trying to win a race or get into body building... just tone up to a healthy state and then maintain. Here is my weekly routine:

Here are a few more details. If my Racquetball partners can't play, I'll Sprint or Spin on those days. I've listed my starting values, which will improve over time. The key is making small incremetnal gains. For example, if I just increase my 5K speed 0.2 mph per month, I'll reach my 2005 goal of a 23 minute 5K. Trying to build too quickly is a sure path to injury and frustration.

I also have some goals, and a graph that I'll use to motivate and chart progress over the year. You can tell I haven't focused on strength yet. I expect to make fast progress over the first few months, and then settle into a more sustainable progress mode. Be sure to understand the importance of "periodization": http://www.fitrex.com/periodization.shtml

If you're interested in a StarOffice copy of these images, to modify for your own use, please just ask. And keep with it.... You'll feel great after you *slowly* build up to your goals. Good luck.

January 05, 2005 06:52 PM EST Permalink

I've got a Cobalt Qube 3 Professional Edition computer. Remember those cute blue cube Linux appliances?  Sun was handing these out to SEs at one point.

They only have a 450MHz processor. But they are the perfect little home file server and networked backup device. The Business and Professional Editions also have a SCSI port to which additional storage can be attached. In fact, the Professional Edition has two internal disks and a built-in Raid1 Controller. It's headless, but has nice features for a server. Problem is (well, you might consider this a problem) it runs an old Linux release (based on a 2.2 kernel) and has been EOL'ed. But in true Open fashion, there is a grassroots community of developers and advocates, and there are instructions for how to refresh this device to a 2.4-based RedHat (v7.2)kernel here:

http://www.gurulabs.com/rhl-cobalt-howto/index.html

I just exchanged e-mail with Dax Kelson of Guru Labs, who told me that this procedure can be used to install RedHat 9 or even  the newer Fedora releases.

I think I'm going to give this a try. I'll let you know if/how this works out. Hmmm, with the new Linux-based SunRay Server Software, I could even potentially drive a couple wireless SunRays around the house, using an 802.11g Wireless Bridge, such as: http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=241

January 05, 2005 04:17 PM EST Permalink