/var/log/orava

Every time I start exercising again after a lapse, I’m (newly) amazed by what a difference it makes. Even though objectively the physical changes are slow, immediately I start feeling… different. Better. More aware of my body, of being in control of all my movements (part of that is just sore muscles, of course :), and a general feeling of being focused and less stressed-out.

The thing is, there are no shortcuts to that, even though millions of drug & nutrition advertisers (and spammers) may try to convince you otherwise. You have to get out there and do exhausting stuff, and keep doing it. There is no easy something that you can take once per day to improve everything, or a nice course where you can exchange a pile of cash for general “physical improvement”. It doesn’t work like that – and maybe that’s the reason why most people nowadays tend to be in crappy shape. Regular exercise is hard, and requires both time and enough strength of will to go to classes (or the gym, or running, or…) even when you’d much rather just stay home and rest, when you’re having a bad, exhausting day and just don’t feel like it.

The “I’ll skip it today, and do it tomorrow” thing is bad, since “tomorrow” so easily becomes “next week”, and that morphs into “next month”, and suddenly you’re a stressed-out, depressed couch potato (again). The good thing about that is that you’ll get a lot on company on IRC when you complain about how depressed and stressed you are, how your body is acting up, yadda yadda. The bad thing is that it’s a downward spiral, and nobody’s going to break it except you, yourself. That’s a hard lesson in these often so soft times.

I say the above with a “been there, done that” viewpoint. Got the t-shirt, too.

Let’s see how it goes this time. Uimastadion, the best place to swim in Helsinki, is open again (yay!). Went there last Sunday and it was great, despite the place being pretty full. Being able to swim outside, in a proper-size pool, is wonderful.

On the more regular side, I’ve started swords training again. The longsword basic course started up last Tuesday, and I’m attending that with a “let’s see how this thing works, again” mentality. Janka also decided to return to swords after some years of doing other stuff, so she’s there, too – and it seems that half the city is, also. Last Tuesday saw the salle full of oldtimers, the “beginner course” seems to be half-full of returning people. In addition, a few old friends with no prior swords experience turned up as well. So we have a somewhat weird (but fun) “beginner” course crowd.

In addition to Tuesday’s longsword basics, I’m aiming at doing (at least) one rapier class per week. The rapier is a great weapon (it’s a big reason Janka decided to come back, also), but it needs a lot of body strength and I’m not quite there yet. It’s returning, slowly.

So… if I manage to keep to a minimum 2 x 2h swords training per week regimen, plus some swimming etc on the side, I should be back in reasonable shape at some point.

Hmm. Should either fix my ancient bike or get a new one. Biking to work (10km or so) would be a good idea, and besides it’s fun.