Wednesday 25 May 2016

Old man threatens (ish) the 4 minute kilometer!

This has nothing to do with fantasy, writing, or politics. It's not even a touching personal piece. So look away now, move on, nothing to see.

Since I no longer have a 'day job' and don't need to cycle the ten mile round trip to work at the Aerospace giant that employed me, I have, mostly against my will, taken up voluntary exercise.

We've moved opposite a park, so on mornings when I can think of no valid excuse not to I run one circuit of it. I read somewhere that short vigorous exercise is as effective as long less vigorous exercise. And since it's very boring I've opted for short. Bollocks to jogging - I'm going to run.

It so happens that my circuit is almost exactly 1 kilometer. I'm also homing (very slowly) in on breaking the 4 minute barrier ... which if it were 1 mile instead would be impressive.

To put it in context, the world record for the 1k is just over 2 minutes!

But I'm an old man, and unfit, and genetically unfit as well (as a young man when I tried running the 5 mile circuit they used to put us on at school I would always end up coming midfield in a class where most of them had opted to make a stroll of it). My heart/lungs are just not very well wired for running.

Anyway, this is what you've made me do by sitting me in front of a writer's desk. For shame!





4 comments:

  1. As a fan of your writing and a personal trainer, I'm happy to hear this is going well. Don't worry about being "genetically unfit" - I was a kid who did 0 pushups on the test, couldn't climb the rope, etc. You just get better little by little by putting in the effort. I mean, at once point I was unable to write, either, but I learned. :D

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  2. Go for gold, Lawrence :)!

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  3. Standing desk.

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  4. Mark, you probably hear this all the time but your writing is fantastic! Dark... but authentically so. I should paint a smirk on to save my face the redundant 30 second cycle! It's not the compelling plot, the shock value of the raw grittiness, or novel approach to the fantastical. Your writing; you could write about anything to rapt attention. However, I'm glad you've picked this insane, macabre world build. It's a vacation from the pulpy, yawning, stillbirths that pass as modern fantasy! THANKS!

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