Slice of Chaotic Life

I have been rather inactive for the last two months or more. It rained almost all November, so there wasn’t much opportunity for my usual long walks and jogs. (Before that was the Mysterious Illness.) December came and with it icy cold and howling wind. Roads and pavements were covered with ice. Then the last week it has been raining almost continually. But yesterday and today have been mild and sunny. (This combination is highly unusual, not to say unnatural, in Norway at this time of the year. It has happened before, but it doesn’t happen every year and it doesn’t last long.) So naturally I took a walk. Yesterday I didn’t realize that the weather was mild until I was on my way to the grocers, so I just took a longer walk home. Today, however, I put on my pulse watch and my jogging shoes.

It is not like I have stayed in bed for the past two months: I go to work five days a week and the commute includes approximately half an hour of walking each day, in four parts. That’s generally considered enough to keep the body aware that this is still inhabited, to put the that way. In other words, half an hour a day is enough for maintenance. Less than that, and the risk of “lifestyle diseases” starts to increase quickly.

My pulse while walking is pretty much the same as it was in fall, but jogging is a different matter. Today I could only jog for a few seconds before my pulse rose above the target rate. So the round-trip that usually takes me 29 minutes actually took 33 today. I also felt stiffer than usual and even got a small blister.

It was okay, I guess. I record this for science. ^_^