June 3, 2021 – 100 days to offload countdown #95

Stephen Fry just recommended a book about the thrills of running to me – via twitter, I don’t know him personally, that wish will probably never be granted. It’s named ’The running drug’ and I get bored and agitated just by reading that title. Running is the most boring sport ever. I can’t keep it up, and while I get the whole endorphin thing in theory, it just doesn’t work for me that way.

I was a wrestler in my youth, not half bad, but once puberty set in, I couldn’t be bothered to show up anymore. I liked some of the mandatory physical education at school, and going to university there was a summer where I regularly played basket ball or football (soccer, I’m in europe) – I enjoyed football more. I’m 6’1’’, but the other guys had couple of inches more (in height, mind you). The wonders of youth started to fade, and in my mid-twenties I started to not staying slim while consuming whatever I liked – I was not used to that, getting slightly bigger worried me. I tried to run as a regular sport in addition to doing every way on foot or by bike. I didn’t last 3 sessions. Running is boring - sorry for the repetetiveness.

Later, as long as I had to walk the dog and ride my bike, weight gain was kept in check. Then the first kid was under way and I got co-pregnant. I can’t stand to see pictures of me taken during that time. The dog died, the kids grew up enough that I hadn’t to bring them everywhere (by bike, of course). And I grew bigger. Still running wouldn’t do it for me.

Alas, I need to work out. I have a bad back, and need to excersise to keep the pain in check. So I bought an elliptical machine a couple of years ago, and managed to use it enough to indeed keep the pain in check, but without the tablet attached to the thing providing entertainment, I wouldn’t last.

The last year was as shitty for me as for the next guy, and I let my routine slip. Then I noticed that my overweight was getting out of control and I manage a regimen of 4-7 sport sessions a week – I rewatched scrubs, I started on the X-Files (didn’t watch the show back then); I watch whole movies excersising on the machine. But the weight loss (nearing 10 kilos this year, only 5 to go) wouldn’t be achievable if it depended on me getting a high off of running.

Running is boring…