Run, sick boy, run
Monday, January 26 2009
My Deputy Film Critic and I watched Run, Fatboy, Run this weekend; Simon Pegg’s delivery is nearly perfect these days, but the movie was not quite as funny as I hoped.
Though I did enjoy it, the film reminded me how sedentary and unfit I am lately. I am no “fatboy” – if anything, I’m underweight – but nor am I in any sort of shape. Which is a shame, because I used to be – which is to say, at several points in my life, I was in good shape, and I enjoy physical activity.
My fitness comes and goes in cycles: get fit, get sick, get unfit, start over. Being sick is far worse than mere inactivity: fever burns through muscle like it’s kerosene. The drugs don’t help: high doses of pred cause joint pain, and cipro can cause severe tendinitis in some people (e.g. me). I reckon I am now at the bottom of the fourth cycle, and I’m having a lot of difficulty starting over again.
The standard advice for recuperating from an injury is “go slow”, but I get so frustrated that I push harder. I have to be really careful in the gym; if I don’t concentrate on taking it easy, I tear myself to shreds. The same for running: I push too hard and hobble myself for the next few days. It’s not that I’m super tough or anything; I’m just used to ignoring my pain receptors. These days, I tend to favor activities like walking, cycling, and swimming – things that are hard to overdo; also, things that are hard to do in winter.
Another challenge is that I do most of this stuff alone; I think having a work-out partner would help me get going again. In the past, I’ve had friends I could run or lift with, but healthy people have no patience for those of us recuperating. If somebody is used to running five miles a day at a vigorous pace, they’re not going to want to cut back to one or two miles at a slow pace. Why should they? The friends I worked out with at the high point of this cycle, I never talk to anymore; obviously, my use of “friend” is rather generous.
There’s no real point here – just a lament. If nothing else, you can see how a movie that’s supposed to be funny ends up being a little depressing for a person like me.
