Running

It has not been easy to stick to my exercise routine. I still do the short workouts on the back porch as often as I can, but lately I crave for the open sky and fresh morning air, so I’ve started walking again whenever I can before Alman gets up. Like I’ve related earlier in this blog, I’ve had to slow down and in fact, leave tennis altogether due to recurring injuries several years ago. I took to walking and joined a taichi group 3 to 4 times a week until Alman was born. Then had to confine myself to exercising on the back porch or just gardening. But the adrenaline flow is never the same as running on the treadmill or playing tennis. I miss the joy of being completely drenched in sweat. 

I’m always reminded of the Japanese lady, in one of my fitness books, who started weight training at the age of 65. She had been very sickly for many years and the fitness programme actually healed her and she went on to acquire a figure that women half her age envied. Then there is my hero Haruki Murakami who writes and runs marathons with equal passion right into his 60s. And recently I read of an American woman who started becoming a marathon runner at the age of 65! Surely I have an advantage being some years younger, without a record of being sickly and having been physically active since my teenage years? I had actually, on 3 ocassions, pushed myself when the itch got the better of me and each time I did, I caught flu right the day after. Which makes me think that the flu bug is either always lurking inside us or hovering around waiting to flare up the moment our bodies are depleted of nutrients or go into low resistance.

Anyway, in the past 2 weeks I had been jogging a bit in between walking up and down our lane which, being slightly elevated, makes a natural treadmill. I was actually secretly nurturing an ambition to be one of those gaunt mat salleh ladies with greying hair in shorts and singlets beating the tracks around taman tar. Wouldn’t Alman be proud to have his grandma jogging with him huhu. So I’d been limbering up and trying to pick up my stamina. Today, I doubled up and had been quite pleased with myself until about an hour later when, moving around to prepare Alman’s breakfast (banana cereal, bananas, crushed biscotti) I felt slightly dizzy, like a pang of low blood which I had encountered a couple of times before. Then I remembered that I did not have enough sleep the past 2 nights, having woken up at 3am and staying wide awake for what seemed like a long time. Lack of sleep, empty stomach and over zealousness…..not the ideal combination for a run at my age, I have to admit. As advised by the doctor earlier, I lied down and had to let Alman maul me. Little fella was delighted to see Opah playing helpless once in a while.

Reality check…..go back to walking briskly and stop when my body tells me to. Scale down my ambition to just being able to run faster than Alman when he is steady on his 2 feet. He can do about 10 steps now but is still quite wobbly. Alman’s a toddler already!