Fitness February
Feb. 2, 2015

I decided to get a bit fitter and healthier for my impending travels. If I'm going to be trekking through the jungle in Indonesia, it would be better if I could still breathe after walking up the stairs. There's a casual assumption in life that skinny people are fit. I am not fit, and if I keep consuming biscuits at such a phenomenal rate I probably won't even be skinny anymore.

So I started running. Yesterday. I have now run twice. I brought the dog, Tess, with me. Tess loves to run as she has some sort of lurcher in her makeup (among about 100 other things). However she only likes to run in bursts of about 10 seconds, until she sees a bird, or a sheep, or a leaf, or smells a pinecone, or hears a person talking, or the worst, encounters another dog. She is not a good running companion.

Since starting Fitness February (I am pleased with the name) I have realised just how fit everyone else is. Anyone I say it to (which is everyone, I do not shut up about it) says things like "oh brilliant! You should join me for my daily 5k run!" Or "Great! How many hours a day are you spending in the gym?" Or "How do you find the cross trainer?" I don't know what a cross trainer is. I have not yet gone to the gym. I managed to run about 0.25km. I had no idea everyone else's default state of fitness was so high.

I asked my friend Keeva to write a workout routine in our shared Fitness February Google Doc and much to my dismay it was NOT "Run for 6 minutes". It features the words "Cross Trainer" so I better learn what that is. Hopefully a form of relaxed contemporary dance.

Leave a Comment:

On Feb. 2, 2015  Arthur Middleton wrote:

Ha ha.


On Feb. 4, 2015  Anthea wrote:

If I feel like a moose in March that would indicate absolute failure of Fitness February.


On Feb. 4, 2015  Liz wrote:

Try a couch to 5K app, they're excellent and talk you through a course to gradually build up to running 5K in 3 months. Mine was 3 times a week and alternated walks between bursts of running and it slowly increases the run time and decreases the walk time.


On Feb. 4, 2015  Anthea wrote:

Ooh that sounds good. Bursts of running I can manage. I was going to get a fitness app but the world of fitness apps is intimidating in itself.


On Feb. 4, 2015  Dan wrote:

The year should just start in February so everyone who joins the gym as a new years resolution can claim they're doing "Fitness February"!