Little by Little - Radiohead

I guess that as you get older you learn more about yourself and the world around you... well at least you're meant to learn from your experiences... I'm learning that my 41 year old body isn't able to do the things my 21 year old body could.

Back then I enjoyed rowing and thought nothing of going to the gym and rowing for over an hour at a time. It was something that I was good at and something that I felt a sense of achievement with... and you can't deny the effect of the endorphins running around your body afterwards. Since I stopped working in Wellington with a gym only a couple of minutes walk away I haven't been doing much rowing and I think that has also contributed to my moods and rubenesque physique. So earlier this week I decided to launch myself back into the rowing saddle... and it's amazing how much out of shape I felt... and realised that I need to respect my body and ease myself back into a steady routine. There's no need to try and row for an hour anymore and it's probably far more beneficial for me to just spend 20 minutes a day to build up my strength and stamina and forget about getting back to the level I was at last year.

It's amazing just how the kilometres add up when you start rowing. Concept2 is one of the world's most well known rowing machine brands and as part of motivating people they provide an online log book where you can record your distances and times and then compare that to other people. I started using the log book about four years ago and while I've been a little inconsistent with rowing due to various things I'm really pleased to announce that yesterday's workout saw me cross the five million meters rowed threshold! It'a quite an achievement and one that I'm rather proud of plus it's come right at the time when I needed a bit of a boost. My goal now is of course to head towards six million meters but... I'm not putting a time frame on it this time. I know that if I make the commitment to row often and for short distances the meters will add up by themselves, little by little, and I'll enjoy the exercise instead of forcing myself to do it.

I also decided it was time to treat myself with a bit of fibre indulgence. A couple of months ago I had ordered myself some undyed alpaca boucle yarn from a place called Flagstaff Alpacas  with the intention of knitting something for myself. I finally got around to dragging out my dyepots again and finally got the yarn dyed.

And here is the work in progress. The four different colourways will all be knit up in a modular pattern I've got worked out in my head... danger... and the plan is to knit one module per day. That way it will become part of a daily routine and I'll also learn a little patience and balance when it comes to my knitting. I thought it was kind of cool that when I wound the yarn from the hank into these cakes that the colours took on a tartan-esque argyle look.

I'm needing to learn the balance thing again because I tend to get distracted and start multiple projects but then discard them in favour of other things. Doing a little bit on each project every day will see good progress on all of them and again help me feel a sense of achievement when I see that progress. Another example are these mini-christmas stockings I've started to knit for the craft fairs I'm going to. I could spend a whole fortnight knitting these and nothing else but then I wouldn't have any time for making up sock yarn blanket kits, skeining yarn, knitting cable strips for a friendship quilt, knitting another jock strap for a ravelry swap, knitting for me, etc etc etc. Knitting always needs to be for fun and pleasure.

Here's something to make you think twice about animal husbandry... click on this like to see an article which appeared in the New zealand Herald...

Is it a sheep... is it a goat... no it's a geep!  

After some testing it turned out that it was a normal lamb but with an unusual gene combination which gave it a more lustrous type of fleece... hmmm I wonder what that would spin and knit up like???

To finish with here's a photo of our wisteria at the front of Scarlet Oak Cottage. I was very relieved to see that it had survived the windy stormy weather we had on Friday... we lost half the green fruit off the old plum tree though so I might be having a few discussions with Ian over how many plums I get to eat vs how many he gets to turn into jam... life is all about negotiation!  

Comments

[anne marie in philly]

ooooooooooh, wisteria! pity everything here is brown and grey...I needed that shot of purple you provided!

[Nigel]

Sounds like you are getting back on track. I'm glad to know it. And you are smart to keep the rowing to 20 minutes. According to Mark Sisson you might also consider doing some sprints on your rowing machine once every 7 to 10 days. Probably not more than 4 or 5 minutes worth actually, with rest in between. Go all out for 10 to 30 seconds, rest, then repeat . Have fun! I have to get to it too.