This Year Makes Five

So I've signed up for yet another health-club. Since I came to Tokyo four years ago, I have been a member of two health-clubs, and two community-run exercise rooms. Let's see, that comes out to one per year. And if I remember correctly, I always start around this time of year. I'm running out of new clubs to join next summer, so I better stick with this one.

To be fair, I'm not as bad at keeping up the regiment as it might sound. I only quit when the club is in an inconvenient location, or the time is inconvenient... or I'm busy.. or tired... or want to paint instead.. or...

The first club was actually the Shinjuku public fitness center in Okubo. That one I stuck with for about 6 months I think. It was great. Not too crowded, only a ten minute bike ride from my apartment, and only cost 200 yen per visit, and you only paid if you went (none of this outrageous monthly fees). I also was getting off of work around 3:30 back then, which left lots of time for working out before dinner.

Then I moved to Nishieifuku, where the nearest public fitness center is an hour bike ride away. I also began working crappy hours.

I joined a gym nearby the office, but found that I always had to decide between working out after work, or making it home at a semi reasonable hour to eat dinner, lest I find myself eating in bed every night just before I turn out the lights. That membership probably lasted about two months.

After about a year of cultivating my flab, I decided to join a club nearby my (new) office, and I would use my lunch hour to work out. This worked quite nicely for about two months, and I even found myself going twice a day sometimes if I got out of work by 6:00.

Then I went on vacation for two weeks, and for other reasons I would not be able to go there the other two weeks of the month. I told them I wanted to suspend my membership for that month since there's not reason I should have to pay if I'm not there. They said no and I said some words the poor receptionist didn't understand. That was the end of that one.

Last year I started visiting Musashino public fitness center. It was a 20 minute jog from work, but I needed a warm up anyway. I also decided I needed a warm down, so I would run the hour back to my apartment too. I kept that up for well over a month. I wonder what ever stopped that? Anyway, I'll just blame it on my brother's wedding.

I have found that I can not keep up going after work. Most days I sit in the office thinking about all the things I have to do that day, none of which have anything to do with work. So when I get out of the office I have only a few hours left to make my day worth anything, and I never allow myself to justify spending two hours "just exercising".

This time however, I am trying something new. I signed up for a morning plan. It's cheap, it's early, and it's about a 45 minute jog in the opposite direction of my office. Unfortunately there are no clubs between my apartment and office that open before 9:30, so I'm stuck going the opposite direction at 6:00 in the morning.

I'm hoping that, assuming I can wake up that early, I won't have anything else to compete with my early morning time... I won't be tired and hungry from staving off boredom during the day. I won't have my head filled with anxiety about not having accomplished anything yet that day. It's perfect. It's also only a five minute walk from Tomoe's apartment, so I'm expecting Freedom toast, and waffles for breakfast on workout days.