Just how unfit am I and writing goals.

So today started with vague trepidation. I was booked in for a fitness assessment at the new gym and wasn't really sure how unfit I would be declared. I turn up on time and get presented with a relatively standard health questionnaire.

I don't have any of the major, mostly heart related, conditions so I don't need a Dr's certificate to undertake even a mild exercise program. OK. First step looks good.

2nd Page. Another checklist.
"Do you have/have you ever had"
Asthma
Arthritis
Hernia
Male > 45 or Female > 55
  Huh. It turns out being a male over 45 is now a condition
Neck/Back pain
  and so on.

I ticked a couple of "yes" boxes but not enough to put me in the "don't let this guy exercise in your centre" category. All good so far.

Now to some biometrics and benchmarks.

Measurements:
Chest:  101cm	Waist:  94.5cm	Hips:    109cm
Left thigh:   55cm	Right thigh;  57.5cm
Left bicep:   31cm	Right bicep;  31.5cm
Weight:   88.5kg

While Anu (the nice lady taking me through the assessment) is measuring I comment. "There's not much muscle there." Her reply? "Yes. It is one of the smaller biceps I've measured." At least she was smiling.

OK. What about some benchmark exercises?

Push ups	Wall sit	Plank
10	1 min 6 sec	33 sec

It's fair to say the only way from here is up!

Resting heart rate	Post 'step up' heart rate	Blood pressure
50 bpm	94 bpm	140 / 80

Apparently the post 'step up' heart rate plus my age puts me in the "Above average" to "Good" fitness level. Go figure. If I'm above average then there are a lot of really unfit people walking, or perhaps not walking, around.

So now I have a weights/training plan to be re-assessed in about 6-8 weeks and a commitment to attend the gym three or more times a week for Pilates and twice a week or more for the training plan.

We ran through most of the exercises and machines testing the appropriate weights to start training with. It was a good, if still somewhat daunting experience.

Pilates starts on Monday.

Yesterday I also sat down to review my writing plan.
Actually I started to write a book over 15 years ago. I have 110,000 words written (some of them probably even good) and have been dipping into it at times over the last two or three years. Most of what I wrote happened in the first year or two.
I've become increasingly sure that the basic concept for the book (fantasy) is sound but that the start especially needs to be re-written before I can go too much further. So yesterday I started to write a new synopsis and spell out the major characters and their roles. Over the next week I might not make the goal of 1,500 to 2,000 words a day but hope that at the end of the week I will have a solid plan for who the characters are and how they get from A to B and eventually to Z. I'm unsure of how much of the existing 110K words I'll be able to salvage but there are certainly concepts and encounters that I think can be transferred fairly well.