The precarious balance

Can beer-drinking societies and group strength training co-exist? If only for one night, they already have.

After a year of classes at the gym, I finally succumbed to the need for personal training (well, group training, two girls from the office and myself). Less intense than the boot camp exercises I have done for most of a year, I found myself feeling surprisingly good afterwards. Once I get to 3 sessions a week, that might be different, but for now, it works well. I love resistance training; slinging weights never worked for me, and using bands, dumb bells and stability balls just fits better.

But on this Thursday, it was on half the night.

This was my inaugural spin with the meetup craze - I scanned for people interested in beer. The Nashville Beer Society meets regularly for conversation about beer and anything else. It was an affable affair, plus a good excuse to go out to a bar I didn't hate. Beyond the Edge might be a 20-television sports bar, but its 20-plus taps and two-for-one specials make it easier to block

Sure, we talked a little about favorite beers, our careers, Nashville's peaks and valleys. The fellow who sat next to me told us of a friend who bought a $25,000 wine collection that had spoiled, making it best suited for vinaigrette.

Then he mentioned helping to open one of the lodges at Glacier National Park. If you have read this blog at any point in the past six months, you can probably fill in the blanks from there. Two hours of good conversation, New Belgium 1554 and Brooklyn Lager. Not a bad way to meet new people.

I don't know if these two events can run parallel for long. Personal training seems pointless without a goal of beerbelly elimination.

For one night, I'm content to let them cancel each other out.