No Treadmills No More

I’m an evangelist for exercise, a fanatic for fitness. I started to become a true believer when I read Aerobics by Dr. Kenneth Cooper; I started running and walking regularly and never stopped.

In Boston I mostly ran along the beautiful and historic Charles River. In Seattle, I usually exercised on an old railroad right-of-way, called the Burke-Gilman Trail. It’s spectacularly scenic with views of Lake Washington and—in good weather—the Cascade Mountains. Birds abound:  herons, hummingbirds, mergansers, buffleheads, grebes, hawks, Stellars jays, the occasional eagle, and others. I bring my binoculars.

I loved being outdoors so much that I’d never even been inside a fitness center. That is, until I took a job about 25 miles from where I lived. My schedule, including the commute to work on I-5 South and the draining commute back home on I-5 North, didn’t leave enough time to exercise before work or enough energy, afterwards.

But there was a fitness center in the building I worked in, and for seven years or so I’d be there at lunchtime, running on a treadmill nearly every workday. It was beyond boring,  but I got used to it. So used to it that when I retired from that job, I checked out a fitness center nearby.

It was huge with endless rows of treadmills and weight machines and stair-steppers and rowing machines and all the rest. It had all the ambience of a decommissioned airplane hangar.

That’s when it hit me! I could do anything I wanted, and exercising on a treadmill was not what I wanted. Since then I’ve exercised outdoors nearly every day, rain or shine (or even snow). 

Hey, gotta go!

Photo by  16961193@N06