Exercise

Occasionally I surprise myself: having barely even run for a bus in three years, I ran 4km this morning. Without stopping. Or being sick. Or crying. This is quite an achievement! Yes, ok, old women threatened me with violence if I continued to dawdle in their path, and my shadow almost overtook me, but other than that, it was fine.

Having a similar lung capacity to a packet of crisps (no coincidence) I have eschewed even light cardiovascular exercise since giving up playing football/soccer five years ago. Well, apart from swimming and walking: the first as I’m mostly lying down; the second as I can talk whilst I walk. I can try to natter whilst I run, yet the heavy breathing may attract the wrong type of clientele. “What you wearing?” “Well . .  huff . . . puff . . . runners! Oh . . . my . . . huff . . . heart!”

Somewhere amongst the travelling, photographs and trains of the weeks I’d spent in Japan and Norway, I must have crossed a mirror or two and marvelled at how badly I’d treated my body. With my mind being nourished plentifully in the last two years, it was time I’d treated the rest of me. Attending the gym again it has made me wonder why I’d ever stopped. And then I remembered why: age. Having been athletic in my youth running a pretty decent six-minute mile for a marathon, I’m now at a six-minute kilometre. That isn’t brilliant, is it? And it takes my man-boobs a week to recover from a chest-press. A week!!!

Exercise doesn't always have to be glamorous

My body and time-constraints don’t allow me to train every day, but neither do I need to: flexing on Venice Beach isn’t my destination, just walking past a mirror without mild repulsion. I intend to dedicate two half-hours a week to vigorous exercise: so that’s one gym session, or performing bedroom gymnastics thirty times. Hedging my bets, I think the gym sessions may be more likely. And to those that don’t believe they have an hour a week to dedicate to exercising your body you need for the rest of your days, count how many hours you watch television a week and then get back to me.
Other things I liked this week:

• A man building his son a 3D-printed Lamborghini and this guy . . . wow!
• Marcus Aurelias’ Meditations by Gregory Hays – it’s free!
• Yesterday
• A one in ten-million wildlife shot at the Audubon Photography Award

Image References:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132130-400-why-doing-more-exercise-wont-help-you-burn-more-calories/
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