Getting back into a routine

Routine can be a funny thing.

When you do it long enough, you start to get bored with it and pine for something different. But after straying away from it for awhile, you start to miss it for the solidarity it brought to your life and how it kept everything in order. The longer you stray, the more you miss it.

As regular readers can probably tell, exercise and working out are the routine that seemingly kept everything in order for me. It's not always the same bike route, running distance orweightliting set, but the consistency of the exercise goes a long way toward keeping me balanced.

For a variety of reasons, I've had a tough time getting back into a regular workout routine (and apparently blogging routine, apologies) since getting back fromRAGBRAI . I've never taken that long of a vacation before, so settling back in has been more difficult than I anticipated. I also switched apartments, dealt with an abdominal strain (much more painful that I thought it'd be), visited family and friends, and starting reading up on other biking adventures to take in the future (I confess, I caught the cycling bug onRAGBRAI).

Consequently, my "normal" exercise routine has been pretty lacking. I'll get a decent bike ride in here and there and find my way back to the weightroom at the Y on occasion, but it hasn't been what I'd call consistent. More often than not, I find myself contemplating a good workout, then stumble across something that seems more pressing at the time.

(Note: I recently found burned copies of "The Office" on DVD while unpacking that I didn't know I had. This counts as more pressing.)

Of course, the best remedy for this is as simple as a Beatles song lyric: Get back to where you once belonged.

So that's going to be my goal for the next couple weeks. I plan on making trips to the gym on a regular basis, going for bike rides when I can and getting back into a steady running routine. With the painful memories of Grandma's Marathon fading into the rearview mirror for me, I also plan on signing up for a few local races this fall to perk up my motivation.

Not sure what the culmination of workout routines will be (still debating between the half and full races for the Mankato Marathon), but I'm ready to get back on the horse. Or in this case, back into running shoes.