Day 19 : Back on Track

Got an email of "support" from my friend in Singapore : "Read your blog yesterday. Throwing tantrums in the garden are we ? Just DO IT !" But to put that into perspective he also said "I ran 15k last night in 1 hour 20mins so well chuffed" (for our American readers "chuffed" means "pleased") so you can see he likes to push himself.

There was also some support from an article in today's Japan Times reprinted from the Washington Post headed "It's never too late to pick up your pace". It is commenting on whether exercise, in this case running, can cause more damage than benefit. My friend will be pleased to hear that the study showed that taking exercise does not worsen the incidence of degenerative problems (knees etc) and benefits in other ways by reducing cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer, not to mention what they call "the compression of morbidity" meaning shortening the period of infirmity at the end of a person's life when they are no longer able to look after themselves. (Sorry to anyone who isn't thinking about that end of their life yet for bringing this up lol).

The point I latched onto in the article echoes what Patrick has been saying "Injury often occurs when runners press beyond their limits they had not prepared for. Endurance is built with consistency, not acquired all at once". And skippers too, I decided!!

So I scaled back on the skipping today. I had to from a practical point of view as well. My evenings are not always my own (tonight is one of them) so I really need to do the exercises in the morning instead of getting home late and tired and forcing it in the evening.

And that meant that I was able to sleep long enough to get the full eight hours as instructed, get Workout 1 done (apart from lunging when I should have been squatting) and get my food sorted out without all the time pressure I had created for myself.

So I've unwound the skipping rope from around my neck!!