Tuesday 11 September 2012

Voyager

What a terrible blogger I've been. And even more terrible blog reader. It's like, since we moved, I've stepped into a different, eerie world where blogs don't exist. I hardly spend any time on the computer any more, except to study. I do other things instead. Yesterday, for instance, I spent two hours gathering blueberries and lingonberries. Then I came home and made apple cake. It's not that I don't care what others are up to, I do. It's just that creating a life for myself here is so much fun, so overwhelming, so different, that I haven't found my balance yet.

Between studying for three different courses and pretending to be Martha Stewart (except the prison part. I'm not doing that. I lack the upper body strength for prison), I've been going for runs. Skellefteå has its own version of Skatås called Vitberget (ie the White Mountain, a Tolkien-ish name that makes me think Gandalf lives there or something. Also, something of an exaggeration. It's more like a hill). J and I found a trail there so narrow you could just about fit two ants in it, which sent our pulses through the roof while we negotiated stone blocks and fallen trees for 5 kilometres. Otherwise, the river area is a great one to run fast in: relatively flat, mostly gravel-free and very, very pretty. I averaged sub-5 for two kilometres there the other day.

Last Sunday I joined a group at one of the local gyms for a Body Combat session. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically shadow-boxing, throwing punches and uppercuts and kicks and generally imagining that you're doing some serious damage to an imaginary opponent. I tried avoiding looking in the mirror while I did all that, or else the illusion would have been shattered as soon as I caught sight of my puny chicken arms trying to do ”damage”. I hadn't done any Body Combat in years, not since we lived in England, and I came away feeling energised. A day later, I was sore. Two days later, I couldn't move. My upper body, from my shoulder blades to the tips of my fingers, was aching so fiercely that I could hardly turn around in bed without waking up.

So I went for a run. Hey, it's worked for me before: when my muscles are sore, I flush the pain out with some increased blood circulation. It's science, people. I read that somewhere on the Internet, so it must be true.

It took me 5 km to get into some kind of flow. My legs never woke up completely, but I did pick up more speed towards the end. Now, after a hot shower, I feel much better than I did before the run, although I still suspect someone beat me unconscious some time last Sunday – I must have suffered head trauma and memory loss, that's why I don't remember it. Why else would my body hurt in such a way?

6 comments:

  1. De flesta av oss borde nog göra som du då och då. Skärma av, stänga ner och bara vara.... Men jag är glad att du delar med dig här emellanåt! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tack! Ja, det är nog bra att skärma av ibland. Men samtidigt vill jag veta hur det går för de bloggare som jag följer. Jag får ta en dag och sträckläsa! :D

      Delete
  2. Bodycombat är riktigt härligt. Och visst blir man slut om man inte tränat det på länge. Gör till och med ont då man andas.

    Det här med att inte blogga eller läsa bloggar känner jag till. Jag har slarvat i sommar. Väldigt skönt :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, man ska absolut inte vara rädd för att misslyckas i alla fall, vet inte hur många gånger jag gjorde fel...kan man inte skratta åt sig själv ska man nog låta bli att vara med ;)

      Ja, ibland behövs det med semester från internet med...

      Delete
  3. Hahaha, träning som ger frågan: Såg ngn nummerplåten på långtradaren som körde på mig???
    Hälsn från Kina

    ReplyDelete