There will be no politics in this post. With that out of the way, let me talk about general fitness. I mentioned once before that the Presidential Fitness test many of us took as kids has an adult version.

It measures cardiovascular fitness, strength, and flexibility. The test consists of running, pushups, situps, and a sit and reach test. Today, I did the test for the first time in a long time. It appears I am slipping.

While the run portion fits in with my recent 5K times, I have certainly run 1.5 miles faster. I have held the line on pushups, but my sit-ups have slipped. flexibility has always been a struggle for me.

As for my weight and waist, I need to work on those, but I think that will come both with a better diet and and more consistency in working out. In an effort to do better, I plan to start training more specifically for 5K running and adding in some cross training.

My plan is to use the 5K training plan from “The New York Runners Club Complete Book of Running & Fitness” as the backbone of a training program. It has a fair amount of speed work, long runs, and even some rest time built in. Now, I need to figure out whether to try to find an August 5K or just take the rest of the month to train and develop a base for September races. I have an obstacle course race coming up in October, so, I need to do more than run. We can test the program to see how it works. If you have a training program or suggestions, let me know.