So the other thing I’ve been doing recently is taking up exercise again.
I’ve not really been all that active over the years. Some mountain biking 10-15 years ago, a couple of attempts to get into using a gym, and that’s it. So with the office-work, relaxed lifestyle, beers and not hugely healthy diet, I started to put on a bit of weight, and now my belly has become a paunch.
A mate of mine – my best man Darren – started running a couple of years ago, and he had found that it had helped him to feel a lot better. So in March I started going to parkrun. Going from virtually no exercise to a 5km run may seem a bit of a leap, but I did always enjoy middle-long distance and cross-country as a teenager, and reckoned I could give it a go. So it was on a snowy Saturday morning that I went over to Coventry to give it a go. Due to the weather only about 100 people took part (usually it’s about 300), and I came somewhere in the 90s after walking about a third of the course. But I finished it, and in just under 34 minutes.
Since then I’ve done it most weekends. Twice my time has been worse than that first one, once when I got bad cramp about halfway round the Bushy Park course and another time when I turned up twenty minutes late and ran it anyway. The great thing about parkrun is that it is quite simple for a rank amateur. It’s free (many running races have fees), you get a time for each run – as long as you have registered and bring your barcode – and most events are big enough with a range of abilities that isn’t too intimidating.
Having picked up the bug, I am taking it a bit more seriously than before – I got a proper pair of running shoes and a watch for my birthday. Yesterday my time was 31:07, but that was on a bad hangover. The four runs before that were all personal bests for the course I was on, and I’ve got my record down to 28:31.
And this month I have (along with my wife) joined a gym. The new Leisure Centre in Rugby was opened at the end of August (although it’s not completely smoothly running if the queues are anything to go by), and we’ve decided to help each other to get more fit and lose weight.
The middle of the line 
September 9, 2013 at 07:21
‘The Gym Group’ opened one in Crawley which I joined a few months back, being the cheapskate I am. The fact that it’s right outside work is ideal because I don’t have to find much extra time. With that and the re-interest in biking I’ve lost about 16 pounds over the last few months. You’ll need to cut back on the booze and be a bit better on the diet though mate, exercise won’t do it alone!
September 9, 2013 at 20:15
Well, we have also decided to be a bit better on diet – swapping white bread for wholemeal, for example. Cutting out crisps and choccy bars.