I have been massively quiet on the blogging-my-exercise-routine front of late. This isn't just because my blog needs a massive kick up the rear end and an injection of adrenaline, but...I don't think I need to explain what you're already guessing. (I kind of decided to take August off, except when I felt driven to write!)
One of my character failings is having initial enthusiasms that then wear off. One of my strengths is being acutely aware of my failings and knowing how to correct them or turn them into strengths.
To recap, a couple of years ago, after several years of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia, I was acutely aware of how unfit and overweight I am and decided to address that by going to my local swimming pool. Inspired by the Olympics, I bought a bike, and blessed by a glorious Indian summer I spent several months of exercising three or four times a week. I knew then I wouldn't keep it up indefinitely, as other distractions got in the way. But last summer was good, in that on several Mondays Jimmy and I went out on excursions by bike.
But the past ten months have provided glorious excuse after glorious excuse. Going on holiday and developing the inevitable post-holiday phlegmy cold and lingering cough. A particularly long, cold and wintry winter. Clapham and Streatham swimming pools closing and being knocked down, creating exceptional pressure on Brixton which embarked on an extended refurbishment period. The General Election which took up time and energy. The post-Election political intrigue which demanded endless hours of sitting on my arse. Going on holiday. Heatwave. Simon Boccanegra. You can see the excuses becoming thinner and thinner and petering out. Culminating a couple of weeks ago in 'Oh, it looks like it might rain sometime in the next four hours'
We have booked a holiday in the New Forest in November which seems like a risk, and we recognise this. But it's not far away, we're going to a village which seems to have several restaurants that boast a 'modern British' cuisine of fresh local ingredients, near a town which seems to have a wide range of eateries. The risk isn't that the weather will be cold, we can dress for that, we just hope it won't piss it down all week long, which will put a downer on things. If we get a few fine bright crisp autumn days it will be nice to take to the forest on bikes; a basic level of fitness will be welcome for this.
It seems a bit silly to have given up smoking but not be addressing the other part of fitness and, of course, putting on weight is silly. It's ultimately unsightly, and I don't want to be squeezing into the various nice clothes I've bought over the past couple of years.
In a way it's frustrating to acknowledge how many backwards steps I have taken. Sometimes I can sit there and feel my once temporarily firm thigh and arm muscles turn to jelly. It was annoying last week to take so long to recover from a short - though intense - ride round Tooting Common and yesterday it was annoying to feel my thighs hurt at trying to make the long but very gradual incline. Especially when I know I ought to be able to go out and cycle tens of mile in a day at a leisurely pace and taking breaks.
I keep telling myself that though it's easy enough to weaken in one's resolve, there are very few resolutions or endeavours that cannot be revisited. I tend to the 'oh, I've slipped, that's over', when I must actually tell myself to try again. Yes, I've lost the momentum of exercising regularly, but I am still considerably fitter than I was two years ago. I've proved to myself that I can do, and sustain it for a year. So there's really no reason not to take up where I left off.
Ramble over!
