After reading the Fred Wilson's post on "The Fred Wilson School of Blogging," I was inspired to make a few comments. He says that: "based on the past dozen years that I've been writing it, I expect that my blog will in some ways be one of the most significant things I create in my life."

Wow. There is something profound in that. It makes me think what it might have been like to have a blog record from my grandfather or my great grandmother. When you couch it in personal historical terms--in autobiographical terms--it does, indeed, become something significant to others. Namely, your family. It makes me wonder what direction to take my own blogging.

Fred suggests having a long form blog and a short form blog. I do have a Tumblr blog that I created last fall and played around with for about a day. I think I might be firing that up again for my own amusement. It's a fun and free tool.

The rest of the entry is  commentary on building your personal brand via networks and communities. Namely: Twitter for wide broadcasts, Facebook for friends and family, and Google+ for...? I think it's still too early to tell about Google+. We're not even a week into it. However, I have had the suspicion that I will go quietly into that night, away from Facebook, and leave her behind. Many have already forsaken FB for Twitter, reporting that tweets to a specific community are the way of the future, etc. I just haven't gotten any traction there. The big thing is that not many people I know are Twitterers, themselves, which means that I don't have anyone to say anything to. It also doesn't work for me in a visual way and, frankly, I just see a lot of noise there. In fact, I have had to unsubscribe to a number of feeds because they were just offending me with either a) the shear number of posts or b) irrelevance, or c) both. As the song goes, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Until Google+ came along. All of my Google Universe plus social sharing and networking? Yes, please.

Of course, networks are only as good as the number of people on them. This means people will have to make a decision about what direction to head in. I say people tired of the Facebook landscape and the uncertainty of where that company is headed will leave for greener (Googlier?) pastures. It remains to be seen.

Ten days ago I set out on a journey back to get back into shape using RossTraining's 50 Day Program. Well, I have only done three workouts in those ten days. Ugh. Two things: getting out of bed should be easier. 100 degree temps don't help.

Oh, and I hit another psychological road bump. I suffered a bruised wrist doing push-ups. I have subconsciously given myself permission to dial it back because of this. That is an admittedly weak move. No more. I will get a solid week's worth of work done, here. I will hammer out an explosive strength session this afternoon. I will get this train back on the tracks. First practice is in 13 days!

As promised, I'm back to report on the progress. As I said, it takes five days to form a habit. Unfortunately, I have not done five straight days of work-outs. I think the July 4th holiday might have been a factor. However, I have made some more progress on my home gym. More on that in a minute.

On my first official day of workouts, I attempted the "No Excuses" Integrated Circuit Training (ICT) workout: consecutive sets 60 secs each of  Burpees, Pull-ups, Body Squats, and Push-ups - catch your breath - do a 45 seconds each round - breathe - 30 seconds each round - BREATHE! - 15 seconds each round - Collapse. Results were phenomenal. I was taking 45-60 seconds to recover between the 60, 45, 30, and 15 sec rounds. Obviously, my conditioning has flagged since the end of soccer season. Another downside is the 90+ (more??) degree heat in the garage. I promptly took Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. Yesterday, I managed an attempt at the first Strength workout and I got a chance to try out some of my new "equipment."

On my accidental days off, I built the t-handle for Hungarian Core Blaster swings. $12 in parts from Lowe’s and I was set. Instructions here. Oh, and I bought some used weights from Play It Again Sports for .69 cents / pound. Bought 50 lbs. worth. I made a body row station using high-tension nylon rope and some PVC pipes for handles. I suspend these from the pull-up bar of my Power Tower and lay down underneath to perform the VERY challenging body rows.  I’m still waiting on my Iron Woody resistance bands. Without those bands, I am useless against the pull-up bar.

Back to yesterday. I tried the Strength workout which focuses on maximum quality reps. I don’t know if it was the heat or my poor conditioning but I bonked about half-way through. Probably both. I’ll bet a good deal was mental, as well. One lesson that I learned is to dial back the program from the Never Gymless 50-day recommendation. Like, by 50% or so.

It’s a start. I’ve got to tinker with timing. I don’t think I can take any more 100+ degree work-outs in the garage at 5pm. I’m going to have to get up with the roosters. More to come in another 5…