1 sentence leads to another

How does one get back into training? I mean serious physical training. I started running before I turned twenty to counter effects of being overweight. The experience I had then drove me to love running. I was obssesed. I delved into books about running and human performance. Running ruled my life. All I thought about is the next step I'll take on the road or path.

Being a college dropout then, running gave me direction. The closest course to running I could take was to major in physical education. And that's what I worked on. Parallel to spending hours wearing out one running shoe after another, I attended classes at a local state university. Education was not a glamorous course but I was fine and comfortable taking it because of my major.

So running made me do that. It changed the course of my life. I was studying seriously and liking it. Teachers who taught the major courses became my mentors. I'd like to think of myself as the best student they ever had. Well they made me feel that.

I was never a competitive athlete. But during that time in college, I tried my hand on it. Not only in distance running but in other events as well. There were minuscule successes and there were more failures. And they reinforced what I had already known: I was a serious athlete... A serious recreational athlete.

Then came swimming. I took an aquatics course in the big city one summer and trained under an Olympian. That one month stint introduced me to my second obsession: swimming. I ran everyday and I tried to swim everyday. Studied the mechanics of effective propulsion in water. Just as in running, I loved to swim long distances. I'd do countless laps at the pool or swim in open water. I did not count laps or distances, instead I counted hours.

Now this shows that I wanted time alone. Although I enjoyed training with others, what I really wanted was to train alone. No pressures - training alone. I enjoyed doing these endurance activities alone. They were my private time. There were good days and there were bad. The bad days surely outnumbered the good ones. But the good ones were so good they cancelled out the bad ones.

I had stints engaging in martial arts: judo and arnis where I earned an instructor's certificate. These countered the lonesomeness of endurance activities.

The day after graduation, I found myself at the office of the university president turning in my letter of application to teach. After a phone call to the chair of the department. I was hired. That six wonderful years of teaching both service and specialized courses. And they made me track coach which afforded me much satisfaction. I was single, loved my work and was getting paid for it.

And since I started receiving a salary, my next project was to get myself a road bike. I always wanted one. So I got parts piece by piece and watched the shiniest, lightest road bike I could afford being assembled right before my eyes. I was high and rode my bike proudly wherever I went, even to parties.

A typical day(weekends were another story) back then looked like this: I'd run or pedal ten kilometers or so to the beach where we held our swimming classes. I'd teach swimming two or three hours and took thirty-minute to one hour swims in open water. I'd go home to shower and change then pedaled to the university to teach track, gymnastics, arnis or whatever load that
is thrown at me. Then I'd hop over to the track to coach the team. And usually, ran with the team during their distance sessions or road work. Some days I am able to lift weights with the team. Then as evening apporoached, 'twas back to the dojo for judo training.

It was super! I was super! Then bang! You get married and lose everything. You lose the fitness, you lose the muscle tone... Everything! And you balloon sixty pounds! That was twenty years ago and that's another story that would entail several separate entries for this blog.

So I ask the question that started this: How does one get back into training? I mean serious physical training.

I know you're itching to hurl your two cents worth at me. But i alone could really answer that.