Variations On A Theme

Got to the gym this evening, making 44 visits in the first third of the year. Not quite sure how this works out in terms of number of times per week so far, but I'm reasonably pleased at the frequency. The challenge ahead will be fasting month. I intended to keep up the exercise in the early days of Ramadhan last year, but a strained back put an end to that. Hoping for a better outcome this year, but not exactly relying on this old body overmuch.

The immediate challenge I face is putting up with the monotony of repetitive exercise in the gym. How I long to run outside again, but that's too much of a risk given the vulnerability of my back, and, in truth, I'm grateful for discovering a way of getting the old heart rate up with little risk of impact injuries. It's worked for me for around 4 years now, possibly 5. Can't remember.

To vary things I occasionally alter the resistance on the machine, lowering it from my usual top rate, and then running for longer. And tonight I discovered the joys of focusing on getting my heart rate up instead of monitoring the calories used. On most evenings the heart rate monitor isn't exactly reliable, but tonight it behaved itself and I gradually climbed to 160 before my time was up, which felt just right. After that it was just a matter of convincing myself to work on some weights for a few minutes - now another dull but worthy part of the routine - and I left feeling even more virtuous than usual.

So, a good start to May all told.