The Great Outdoors

I realized back in June that I had let myself get seriously out of shape.  I decided to climb Mount Monadnock, which should not have been difficult, but found myself seriously out of breath a few times.  It was mildly to seriously embarrassing.  It's tough being a civilian and staying in shape.  When I was in the Army we took an hour and a half out of the work day each day to work out, not optional.  I have learned that civilians expect a full work day; granted the civilian work day is only eight hours long, instead of the ten to twelve hours the normal Army day was, but still.  Any hoo, I started running again, 5 days a week, and swimming, 3 nights a week, and am slowly rounding back into a shadowy semblance of shape.  I have learned its much easier to pull muscles as you get older - who knew.  I was out running this morning and was reflecting (hoping to dull the pain in my left calf) about how much I love being outside.  We live on a country road in central Massachusetts and there are a bunch of local trails I can run on.  I reflected on the fact that I loved being outside when I was growing up, camping out, hiking - the complete boy scout experience.  I found that the Army robbed me of this love.  I ended up spending so much of my time outside as an infantry officer that it became work and drudgery.  I was usually dead tired, sweat soaked, and operating without lights at night (thank God for NVGs).  As I was gently pounding the pavement this morning, thoroughly enjoying the early morning mist and quiet if not the running, I realized this is something I should get back to.  I'm adding hiking to the list of things to pick up again this year.  The great thing about it - no 50 pound pack to carry as a civilian.  Oh yeah, back up Monadnock again before the snow flies.