I haven’t posted anything about my ongoing fitness saga lately. (Heck, I haven’t posted much of anything at all, he says snidely.)

Anyway, today was a cardio day (3 days strength, 3 days cardio, Sundays off). I had intended to take a trip back in time to where this whole fitness thing started, and do my cardio on the elliptical machine at the YMCA. I packed the headphones and my Pines of Rome CD for a little added motivation.

I got to the Y, staked out a machine as far away from the others as I could. (See, I have this weird habit of getting carried away when the “Pines of the Appian Way” section kicks in, and it’s not uncommon for me to actually “air-conduct” or something. But I digress…).

Well, the machine I staked out was unstable and wobbly, and felt like it was going to fall apart at any minute. (Now, mind you, I’m 69% of the man I used to be, but that’s still not a secure feeling!) On top of that, the TV/audio console kept flopping up and down. And to top it all off, the audio-out jack wouldn’t hold my headphone plug. So, I scrapped that idea after only five minutes.

I’ve been running for my cardio for a while, and so I decided to give the indoor track a spin, just to get my workout in. I hopped off the elliptical, and started running. It started out to be one of the easiest paces I’ve had, and I just had that feeling that it was almost effortless.

17 laps later (one mile on the indoor track) I glanced at my trusty Timex Ironman, and it read…

9.07.74

Now, I know that’s slower than Christmas in the real running world — after all, I’m the guy they used a calendar to time in the 50-yard dash as a kid — but for a 46-year-old old coot, who couldn’t even go for eight minutes straight on the elliptical just 11 months ago, it’s a personal record!

Oh, the best part about that 9-minute mile? You can do a significant amount of business with God while you’re on that pace. And in the 13-minute mile walk just after it. And in the 12-minute mile run-walk interval workout at the end.

Here’s hoping you have a “personal best” Thursday today!