As I made clear in a few previous articles, I hate doing boring stuff. Using machines in the gym seems just one of those. Fitness, though necessary should not be a monotonous thing. The reason I don’t like the treadmill or the elliptical or the stationary bicycle is that while the body is getting a nice workout, the mind is sitting completely idle. People take their favorite magazines or look at some lame show on the gym TV. I just can’t afford to idle my mind, even for half an hour a day.

Enter the concept of fitness through fun. My coworker Ken (wirehead) is an excellent example. He hates the gym for the same reasons as mine. He took up bicycling 2 years ago and never looked back. He rides (both commute and fun) so much that sometimes he can’t recall when he last drove his car. He is back in an awesome shape and I now have a healthy dose of jealousy on his achievement. Now my problem is, even though I took up cycling recently, I just can’t get rid of my habit of working late on personal projects. Sleeping at 2am pretty much guarantees a frantic morning of a quick shower followed by dashing off to work on my motorcycle. So, back to square one.

But it changed this week. Quite dramatically.

Priti wanted to try out rock climbing at the local Planet Granite and just to make her happy I agreed to take up a 4-week course during which we could climb as much as we wanted. Looking at all the fit people around, I was more or less sure that it could very well suck for me. Lo and behold, all my assumptions were proven wrong at the first climb. I had no idea how much strength I had in my arms that I could still pull my weight pretty well.

We both bought shoes and harnesses on the next day. No point renting them since we like it so much. Priti did a few successful 5.8 climbs (for the definition of grades, see here: YDS) yesterday and I finished four consecutive climbs on 5.3 to 5.6 today. I just could not believe it.

My whole body got exercise. I had fun. Looking at the variety of climbing tracks here I don’t think I will get bored anytime soon. And then maybe we will go outdoors for more serious fun, plus photography as well. Now that is what I call fitness as a side effect and has the most ROI I can ever imagine.

More photos: Rock Climbing – 2009

I can precisely write down why this was the best choice. If I take the cage (car), it not only means the most boring hour spent on the freeway staring at the next bumper, it is next to impossible to park without paying hefty fees. If I take the motorcycle, I can lane split on a congested part which is better than the 4 wheeled option, plus I can find free parking to boot. But then if I want to do street photography there is only so much I can walk. Caltrain cost me $12 both ways but I could already ride 8 miles around late afternoon. And not to mention the countless stops and easy access to anywhere that looked like a photo opportunity. This freedom just plain rocks for me.

I remember how much I used to hate SF just for this parking trouble (4-letter words every few seconds). I guess it is all in the past now. Waiting for Priti to be back and joining me for day-long explorations in the city.

Special thanks to my buddy Ken (@wirehead) for everything that is magically happening in my life related to bicycling. The true test of his influence will be to see what shape I am in, one year from now.