Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 June 2006 14:04:47
Well, I guess it turns out that I seriously overestimated the amount of wisdom I have to share.
Let's talk about cycling instead.
I used to like cycling when I was a kid, till my bike got run over by a drunk driver. Fortunately, I was wheeling it across the road rather than riding it at the time, so I got away with a bit of blood and a good excuse for being late home from the youth club. They said in the hospital that I was lucky the bike was there to protect me, which is one of the madder things I've heard.
Anyway. Now I'm a born-again cyclist. (I get fit and I go to be with Jesus when I die.) It's fab. Whhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! I go, when it's downhill, the wind in my helmet, my life in my hands. When it's uphill, it's more "Ugh - ugh - ugh - ugh - ugh..." (stop and pretend to fix something on my bike while I get my breath back) "...ugh - ugh - ugh". But then it's a truly righteous feeling when you get to the top - and when you feel those little blobs of cholestrol being traded in for extra minutes of your life.
Which is why I've been persuaded to rediscover the joys of the saddle - not the feeling, but the extra time. There was a time, when the days were long and life stretched ahead more or less forever, when some of us cared about being fit and healthy and some didn't. Those who did, devoted themselves to sport, weights, running, and were lean mean sex machines. Those of us who didn't gave our time to more enjoyable and meaningful things and got by with what God given us in the sexual selection department.
But now I've reached the stage of life where the halfway-to-3X20+10 milestone is past, the peak behind me, whhhhhhheeeeeeeee!!! And it turns out that the question is no longer whether you're going to exercise, but which exercise you can manage to maintain. It's not a lifestyle option anymore, it's life. It's not about what shape your body is (or not solely) but how long your body is going to last.
I don't like any competitive sports - there's such a thing as being too good a loser. And jogging I keep in the same folder as banging my head on my desk for half an hour. Then I remembered how much I used to like cycling. And off I go. Whhhhheeeeeee!!! It's not only good exercise and good fun, it actually gets you somewhere. And it's environmentally friendly. How about that. And it turns out to be the quickest way available of going the 8 miles to Kings Cross.
And now I'm off again. Seeya.