“Oh you’re grumpy this morning. I think you need to go for a run.” This is pretty much the response I get from my digsmates everytime I’m in a bad mood. And they are right. Running makes me a happy person. My slightly dirty, New Balance takkies (with a pink characteristic ‘N’ on the side), are my mobile therapy room. Running processes my issues whilst (hopefully) generating some gorgeous calve muscles at the same time. Hill training is best for those difficult days where you turn up all the one-ways. And in Grahamstown, South Africa, there are plenty of stress-relieving hills that offer rewarding views of the town (and a welcome downhill on the other side).
Also in Grahamstown is Rhodes University – the place to study Journalism and Media studies in South Africa, and host to a brand spanking new honours course in health journalism. At the start of term, Prof Harry Dugmore explained the notion of behavioural change with relation to our health course. The challenge: bring about some behavioural change in your lifestyle to benefit your health.
Yes! I’ve had a head start! I absolutely despised long distance running all my life. But after entering the Two Oceans half marathon this year, I have discovered a new love and a crutch in none other than road running. With a couple of k’s already on my takkies, I stepped up my training programme. This most certainly does not imply a systematic plan or involvement of scientific method – I simply started running more often because ‘programmes’ ironically seem to discourage any aspiration for behavioural change in my fitness. Programmes guilt trip you for missing a day and ultimately end up in the bin with the imprint of the bottom of my slipper on it.
However, one programme we are required to keep to is to be at the HKE (fanless, hot, old building for Human Kinetics and Ergonomics) at lunch time every Thursday. In the first session, ‘fitness’ (for lack of a better word) assessment showed that I have the flexibility of an ox and the heart of a young cheetah. I have never been able to touch my toes and probably never will – perks of long legs? But the pathetic flexibility measurement motivated me to do some of those elementary Yoga moves with unrelated names in the Runners’ World magazine. *Sets reminder to find respective magazine tomorrow*
How many sit-ups and push-ups did I manage in a minute? I don’t know. But it was also not fantastic. But a motivation to improve none-the-less. I aced the cardiovascular assessment, though. As we went up up down down the step to the rhythm of the pentameter, my heart rate made a slow climb to one hundred and twenty something. And a quick recovery thereafter. (No thanks to the two hot cross buns I had for lunch).
And so, the basic measurements under the surveillance of classmates, have motivated me to run more and eat less hot cross buns.
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