Almost everyone I know has started or is into some sort of fitness regimen nowadays. My "normal" (a.k.a. those who are in the same boat as me physically) friends have recently picked up jogging after work in the nearby park, or have taken to hitting the gym thrice a week. My more hardcore family members and friends usually join the marathons scheduled every few months. The ones I admire most, in fact, are my uncle and aunt. They're in their mid-40s and just got back from the Hong Kong Marathon. They ran a distance of 42K. That blows my mind.
While I wouldn't exactly consider myself a couch potato (I play table tennis at work fairly often — yes, we have a table in the office — and swim on certain weekends), I'm definitely not as fit as I used to be before I started working. As a kid, I was always enrolled in some summer program and as I grew older, I would compete very regularly in swim meets. Though I was no longer part of the swimming varsity in college, I still kept up my swimming routine and would swim an average of 120 laps per day in the neighborhood pool. As a result, I was fit all throughout college — and, not to mention, tanned.
It was during these last few days, after my birthday, that I decided to do something good for myself physically. I feel a sense of fulfillment after having enrolled in French, but I wanted to do something for my body. After all, I realized that I wasn't getting any younger.
As much as I want to swim everyday, our neighborhood pool opens much later than the time I have to leave for work. So that was out of the question. I never cared for the gym, nor expressed any interest in joining yoga or Pilates classes. I wanted to do something that didn't have to cost me anything because, practically speaking, why spend?
So this morning, I woke up forty-five minutes earlier than my scheduled time, changed into a loose shirt, shorts, and running shoes, downed two glasses of water, turned on my iPod Touch and went for a jog.
Prior to this, I had installed an app called 321Run Lite, which was something like a poor man's version of Nike+. There weren't any cool chips that I could insert into my shoes, but at least I wouldn't have to shell out a couple of thousand pesos. Anyway, it wasn't as if I really planned to track my progress since I'm far from even thinking about joining a 3K race.
So I set off, played a song, then turned on the app. What I liked about it was how there were different programs customized for different levels of running. I selected the "From Couch to 30 Minutes" program. Basically, a voice would prompt me to run for 60 seconds, then walk for 90 seconds, then walk again for 60 seconds, over the songs I was listening to.
It wasn't a bad workout, I have to say. Naturally, being asthmatic (and never a fan of running), I was short of breath at the end of thirty minutes. But that was to be expected. And I had the usual red itchy splotches on my thighs and stomach area, which, I found out, were a result of my capillaries enlarging to allow more blood flow to these areas. Needless to say, I'm determined to reach that point wherein I won't feel those splotches and won't wheeze as much.
I'm planning to "run" thrice on weekdays, then get back in the water on weekends and do my laps. Oddly enough, even if I don't swim for months, I can pick up my swimming pace and do 70 laps easily. This makes me wonder if I have gills and not lungs.
Also, I'll have to be more conscious about my food intake (I'm far from being what people call "pleasantly plump" but I'll just have to take in more greens than fried food, for example) and start doing crunches and other anaerobic exercises at home, too.
So here's to a healthier, more fulfilled me in 2010! I hope we all do something to make ourselves better, in whatever way, this year.
P.S. I realize that this blog has developed into a blogblog and not a photography blog. My apologies. I haven't exactly had the time to go around and take photos the way I want to. I hope to pick up the camera and start clicking the shutter very soon.
