exercising demons
Four days of nonstop rain ... it's supposed to be the dry season now. I've hence temporarily forgone Tuesday and Thursday soccer for 30+ minutes of swimming laps at the staff housing pool. First time in my life that I've swum for exercise. I'm actually enjoying it (especially the endorphin-induced sense of wellbeing afterwards).
Usually, I don't enjoy exercise for its own sake. I'm happy to play a sport for hours (if I enjoy it), but if I start jogging, I quickly get this horrible itchiness in my arms and legs and give up in about 5 minutes.
My first-ever attempt at exercise for its own sake (or for vanity's sake) was doing weights in the Adelaide Uni gym in my first year (1990), around the time I turned 18. I was tall but pretty scrawny, and I had an absurd idea that I'd do weights and beef up. I did a half-baked couple of sessions per week for one term. I was trying to gain weight -- instead, I lost it and became even scrawnier. Summer holidays rolled around and when Uni started the next year I forgot all about it.
A year or two later, I seemed to do the natural "filling out" thing and have since hovered around 95-98kg for the past decade or so (I'm 6'5", so 98kg isn't as heavy as it sounds). I did tip the 100kg mark in 1994, when, for a few months, a dislocated kneecap rendered me unable to do anything more active than eat.
My second effort at exercise for its own sake was a far more sensible attempt to increase fitness by riding my bike around Lake Burley Griffin while living in Canberra in 2003 (I'd long since gotten over being vain enough to step inside a weights room at a gym, though I confess to thinking that a slightly more svelte profile -- i.e., my body shape as is, minus the paunch -- could be a pleasant side effect). I'd head off from work at lunch, don my minidisc headphones and pedal around listening to the Stone Roses, Silver Jews, Mountain Goats, Will Oldham, and Preston School of Industry. For whatever reason, these were the bands that rode with me in my noble quest for moderate fitness...
Usually, I don't enjoy exercise for its own sake. I'm happy to play a sport for hours (if I enjoy it), but if I start jogging, I quickly get this horrible itchiness in my arms and legs and give up in about 5 minutes.
My first-ever attempt at exercise for its own sake (or for vanity's sake) was doing weights in the Adelaide Uni gym in my first year (1990), around the time I turned 18. I was tall but pretty scrawny, and I had an absurd idea that I'd do weights and beef up. I did a half-baked couple of sessions per week for one term. I was trying to gain weight -- instead, I lost it and became even scrawnier. Summer holidays rolled around and when Uni started the next year I forgot all about it.
A year or two later, I seemed to do the natural "filling out" thing and have since hovered around 95-98kg for the past decade or so (I'm 6'5", so 98kg isn't as heavy as it sounds). I did tip the 100kg mark in 1994, when, for a few months, a dislocated kneecap rendered me unable to do anything more active than eat.
My second effort at exercise for its own sake was a far more sensible attempt to increase fitness by riding my bike around Lake Burley Griffin while living in Canberra in 2003 (I'd long since gotten over being vain enough to step inside a weights room at a gym, though I confess to thinking that a slightly more svelte profile -- i.e., my body shape as is, minus the paunch -- could be a pleasant side effect). I'd head off from work at lunch, don my minidisc headphones and pedal around listening to the Stone Roses, Silver Jews, Mountain Goats, Will Oldham, and Preston School of Industry. For whatever reason, these were the bands that rode with me in my noble quest for moderate fitness...
posted by secret wombat at 5:02 pm
4 Comments:
You will be shot for putting monkey fuckwits Stone Roses in the same sentence as goddam heroes Silver Jews, you dumb fag.
DeNunzio
Sally Cinnamon - you are my world...
You ain't gettin' no Coke!
Nunan.
I tried to teach him something about music. No results so far...
Do you even KNOW the Silver Jews...?
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