Broadening the Exercise Horizons

Following on from Blinky's blog yesterday about leisurely jogging in hail, I ended up with a similar experience yesterday. After pushing myself to just about as far as I could go physically and mentally last weekend, a workout in the gym - which last week used to spook me, really was quite easy, bordering on boring. The overall dryness, stillness, and warmness of Fitness First on Fetter Lane sent my brain into 'wandering' mode.

During my 15 minutes on the rower, I became bored enough to look around the gym at the talent, watch a bit of the replay of the cricket, and get very annoyed at the music they play and the repeated use of a combination of midgets and/or kids dancing as Michael Jackson in dance-music video's. Does nobody else realise the connotations of a small boy doing the thriller dance? Also, isn't that copyrighted? Can you copyright a dance move?

Anyhow I digress, proving that most battles are won in the mind, I (ahem) stroked my way to a record distance in 15 minutes on the rower. This was achieved despite rowing one-handed on quite a few separate occasions as I tried to wipe the sweat that had painfully seeped into the raw skin on my face that still hasn't recovered from the major windburn. So perhaps I've unlocked the key to great performance, it isn't in a skin-tight shirt or the bottom of a lucozade bottle, it's thinking something is easy. I'm available for £5,000 per pop if you need me for an after-dinner speech.

I fear all this is about the be shaken up though. It's back to the trim trail on Saturday. The Sharlands have had to wait 3 weeks before they get their hands back on me. And this one will be done in arctic conditions. Awesome.

As an aside to last week, a new Westfield has been opened up in Shepherds Bush. If you lined up all it's escalator's you'd be able to get to the top of Ben Nevis whilst reading a paper and being brushed past by teenagers looking to get off with one another. Infuriating.