All in the Mindset

If you look back, over the last two years or so of this blog, and take a look at the days I post, there's a pattern to be noticed. That is, I guess, if you feel like decoding the difference between the timezones and datelines. If you can guess the origin of that pattern, I'll give you bonus points.

I essentially had nothing to do this evening, even though I took off from work right after lunch since I had no afternoon class, and I was sitting there at about 4:45 thinking to myself, "Christ man, I'm bored. It's still light out and I am literally bored to tears. This bites." Yes, I still say things bite, just quietly and to myself. Er, and the internet.

Anyway, I had this flashback, several actually, to the other week when I went to the gym with Saki. She and her family recently joined up at the gym that you trip over walking to their new place from the station, and along with her membership she got a couple free guest tickets, which she invited me to use one day during the course of conversation. So one day when she had the day off and I finished school relatively early, I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said "じゃあ、一緒にジムに行こうか” and, being the adventurous type, I said sure, fuck it, let's go to the gym together. I'm always up for a new experience and like hell I'm gonna turn down a departure from her coming over and us doing the regular cook dinner and watch TV till 11:30 thing. Besides, drinking after a workout is just fantastic. You turn into a cheap drunk. Also nice.

So we went, worked out, Saki made fun of my inflexibility, and then I got to be a man at the gym, lifting far more than her and even, though I'd never admit it, impressing myself a bit too. I'm not known for being excessively (read: at all) manly, so it was maybe her first time seeing me use brute strength. But I digress.

The point of all that is, that we went jogging at the gym too. For an hour, including lead in and cool down, which was impressive for both of us, and a first as well. I wasn't really even tired afterward, which was a double shock. I felt great afterward. So then we went and drank. Fun times.

And then I thought, coming back to my flashbacks, back to last summer, when I went jogging a whole lot and lost zero weight and gave up, but still I was jogging regularly.

And then I thought about the translation work I've been doing for Mayumi, my Japanese teacher and former student from Nova. She's translating a book called Sydney! about Japanese marathon runners at the Sydney Summer Olympics, and wanted me to edit and correct a 10 page section of it. So, I got to do a lot of cross checking and such, but in the process learned a bit about marathon runners, and that lifestyle. So it's been on my mind since early January, kinda stewing in there, ready to work itself into my unsuspecting life.

So, in my boredom, I got this great idea, seemingly out of nowhere, to go for a jog. I did my stretching routine, which somehow or other magically appeared on my computer some time after going to the gym with Saki, and have set to do every morning as an alarm that goes off at 7am, and went outside in the cold windy weather to see if I could channel the marathon runner in me.

I looked at the time before heading out, reminded of my summer jogging that I thought took forever but in fact always ended up taking like 20 minutes, much to my chagrin. 5:05. K. I wanna be gone for an hour.

Anyway, to make a long story short(er), when I walked back in the door, it was 6:03. I did it.

And the best part was, I wasn't even tired. I ran three times the distance I was jogging back in the summer, after which I was too tired to continue, and now it's like it was nothing. I was energized. On the way back, I didn't wanna stop jogging. I started to walk for my cool down, and my legs were begging me to keep jogging. I felt this tension in my body like I've never known before to keep going, I just had to. So I did. And it felt good. Damn good. Like, things I shouldn't be doing good. Drunk with power good.