Deja Vu all over again
May. 21st, 2003 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuWhen I was in college I took up jogging quite by accident. I took a morning volleyball class to fulfill one of my physical education requirements during my freshman year. It seemed like the least onerous class I could take (short of swimming, but since I'd already taken and passed the swim test required to graduate back then, I wasn't allowed). Unfortunately, the volleyball instructor required us to start each class by running twice around William & Mary hall, which is a really big building on a really big "block". It was a long run. I didn't like it, but I did it. I didn't think much about it until one night when a friend and I were walking across campus to the deli. It started to rain, so we began to run--and very shortly my friend was gasping for breath and I wasn't. And that's when I realized that all that running had improved my endurance. And I realized that I liked it. I've never been an athletic person, so that was amazing.
Even after the class was over I continued jogging. I eventually got up to 2.5 miles a day before circumstances (mostly my schedule) conspired to interfere with my regimen and I slowly got out of the habit of running. I've taken it up again intermittently over the years, but never as consistently, sad to say.
My senior year I took a Karate class just because I wanted to (I'd already fulfilled all my P.E. requirements). It was a very similar experience. I would spend every Monday, Wednesday and Friday toying with the idea of skipping class just this once, but by the time 6 p.m. rolled around, I leaped up to change into my gi and dash off to class. And, again, considering that I've never been and thought of myself as an athletic person, I really enjoyed the class. But I graduated, got a job, and moved away from Williamsburg and never again seemed to have both the money and the time to take martial arts lessons consistently. But like the jogging, I've taken it up for short periods now and again. And I learned a few things.
1. If I'm going to exercise regularly I have to make a fetish of doing it; given the slightest opportunity, my lazy nature will make its presence felt and suddenly it's been weeks since I last made the effort.
2. Even when I'm at my most sincere and consistent about exercising, I spend every day that I'm supposed to exercise playing mind games with myself. I consider slacking off just this one time; I vicariously enjoy the freedom not to go jogging, or go to karate class, or go to the gym. And that way, when the time comes that I actually have to decide to do it, I do it. I've already enjoyed playing hooky--and now it's time to do the work just one more time.
3. I need to be able to do the work on my schedule. Which means, basically, in the evenings; I've never been a morning person and I never will be. And it means, ideally, that I can do it when the mood strikes.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I did my weightlifting tonight, despite being tired and out-of-sorts. Not right after I got home, and not before making dinner for the family and then netsurfing for a while. But the awareness that I ought to do it, and the mind games (I could skip it if I really wanted/needed to combined to send me down to the basement about 9:30 to get it over with.
Now I have. And I feel slightly fatigued (that ever so faint trembling in the muscles), but oh so virtuous.
Even after the class was over I continued jogging. I eventually got up to 2.5 miles a day before circumstances (mostly my schedule) conspired to interfere with my regimen and I slowly got out of the habit of running. I've taken it up again intermittently over the years, but never as consistently, sad to say.
My senior year I took a Karate class just because I wanted to (I'd already fulfilled all my P.E. requirements). It was a very similar experience. I would spend every Monday, Wednesday and Friday toying with the idea of skipping class just this once, but by the time 6 p.m. rolled around, I leaped up to change into my gi and dash off to class. And, again, considering that I've never been and thought of myself as an athletic person, I really enjoyed the class. But I graduated, got a job, and moved away from Williamsburg and never again seemed to have both the money and the time to take martial arts lessons consistently. But like the jogging, I've taken it up for short periods now and again. And I learned a few things.
1. If I'm going to exercise regularly I have to make a fetish of doing it; given the slightest opportunity, my lazy nature will make its presence felt and suddenly it's been weeks since I last made the effort.
2. Even when I'm at my most sincere and consistent about exercising, I spend every day that I'm supposed to exercise playing mind games with myself. I consider slacking off just this one time; I vicariously enjoy the freedom not to go jogging, or go to karate class, or go to the gym. And that way, when the time comes that I actually have to decide to do it, I do it. I've already enjoyed playing hooky--and now it's time to do the work just one more time.
3. I need to be able to do the work on my schedule. Which means, basically, in the evenings; I've never been a morning person and I never will be. And it means, ideally, that I can do it when the mood strikes.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I did my weightlifting tonight, despite being tired and out-of-sorts. Not right after I got home, and not before making dinner for the family and then netsurfing for a while. But the awareness that I ought to do it, and the mind games (I could skip it if I really wanted/needed to combined to send me down to the basement about 9:30 to get it over with.
Now I have. And I feel slightly fatigued (that ever so faint trembling in the muscles), but oh so virtuous.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-22 10:36 am (UTC)