Journey to Fitness Chapter #23: The Two Towels!

The Two Towels!

The journey started near the beginning of the year, and progress had been good for a few months. All it took was 4 weeks of inactivity and Miles’ fitness had dropped back to square one.

It wasn’t just the lack of exercise and the work travels, but also the bouts of illness that had weaken his constitution… and in someways, his mental toughness. Fueled further by that few sessions of weakness in his knee during his run.

Everything cumulated to the current state that Miles found himself in. All the past training programs and effort poured down the drain.

“It takes so much time, determination and effort to build up one’s strength and stamina, and so little to destroy all that effort.” pondered Miles.

In a way, that reflects life in itself. You put in so much effort and doing so much good to build a reputation, but just one bad deed or action to destroy everything you have built.

Nevertheless, one shouldn’t give up.

There is Always Hope

(Quick guess which movie was this quote from? No checking the internet or AI… don’t cheat!!!)

After 4 weeks in the wilderness, feeling lost and guilty for not running. Miles knew his stamina is now back to ground zero. “Let’s start slow and easy” thought Miles, trying to convince himself.

Miles didn’t want to plan too far ahead, knowing how disruption is inevitable. He quickly drew up a 4 weeks program to re-start his aerobic phase of training. Again, using the tried and tested method of 2 short runs on weekdays and a long run on weekends. Throw in a swim session as cross training and WALAH! A plan is borned!

Soon, Miles found himself putting on his running shoes, half-alseep at 5:30am, dreaming of his bed which was just meters away.

His first run after 4 weeks was harder than he had expected. Struggling and panting to finish a 5km run in 41mins, with average HR of 151 bpm. That’s at an average pace of 8:07 mins/km. He brushed it off as rustiness.

Miles deliberately slowed to an easy pace on this next run, trying to use HR as a guide. He succeeded at keeping the run with an average HR of 145 bpm, though he would have wanted it to be lower. But that came at the expense of an average pace of 8:53 mins/km, finishing his 5.5km run in 49mins.

Miles was resigned that his fitness journey have taken a reset, and will have to build it back up slowly, step by step… Literally and figuratively.

During the weekend 6km run with his buddies, he had to bring 2 towels as bucket loads of sweat keep dripping. Keeping to his objective of running based on HR, he completed the run in 52:30mins with an average pace of 8:45 mins/km, and average HR of 144 bpm. Mission accomplished!

Even though his paced has slowed considerably, he was consoled that his buddies Gallop and Wade ran by his side throughout, though they could have ran faster. Telling him stories and jokes throughout the run to distract him from torment of the run.

Life is such, it is never smooth sailing, and it’s the journey that matters more than the destination.

“This will be another uphill battle in regaining my fitness again” keeps ringing through Miles’ head throughout the run, as he kept wiping the perspiration off his forehead…… and thought to himself…

“So glad I brought TWO TOWELS!!!”