A week of no running or cycling – and lessons learned

Croquet – enjoyable, but not possibly not a replacement for running or cycling in terms of making the pulse race

I started Monday feeling distinctly jaded from the weekend’s runs, niggles to my left knee and thigh, sore feet and the cumulation of weeks of hard gardening and stone wall building.

With the longest and most difficult section of wall still to be done I took the (for me) momentous decision not to do any exercise sessions in the week.

I can’t remember the last time I didn’t run, cycle, or go to the gym at least three times in a week but I think it was a good call to have a go at making more progress on the wall and having time to help get ready for our older son and his girlfriend coming up on Thursday to visit for a long weekend to mark his 30th birthday on Friday.

Fortunately I managed to speak to someone sensible on the internet provider’s customer support line and she sent a new power lead for the router. It arrived on Tuesday and, after a mere 5 days, service was resumed. The four previous calls had produced nothing more than ‘I’ll pass the details to our technical department’.

Happily, the wall progressed well and we were ready for a terrific weekend which featured a walk up to the Uffington White Horse, plenty of croquet, a great birthday barbecue on Friday evening (after a scorchingly hot day), too much food and a lot of champagne. Saturday lunch was at a local pub by the river with (more) very good food and another long walk in the afternoon.

Our older son and girlfriend left after lunch on Sunday. What a great weekend.

I contemplated a run later in the day but decided to stick to my ‘no running or cycling for the week’ policy – no matter how hard that might be.

I was wondering what, if anything, I learnt from the week of no formal exercise – recognising that it was just one week and not an entirely standard one because of the birthday celebrations.

First – and a bit worrying and surprising – is that although I really enjoy the running and cycling (and gym, when possible) I fear I could fairly easily lapse and not do them much – or at all.

Second – and this is a bit of a shock – although the knee improved, there is a possibility that the reason I feel older and crankier in the mornings is not because of too much exercise but because of increasing age.

Third – not exercising does save on the clothes washing.

Fourth – I neither can, nor want to, eat as much as I used to.