Healthy Project

These days it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to find the time to do physical exercises. By the time I come home from the office, I am always overwhelmed by laziness. There is this tendency to blame it on mental exhaustion from work, whatever that means. At other times, it would be raining in the evenings, so the jogging track would be out of the question.

I’ve asked many people which one they prefer to have more: wealth or health. The universal answer is health. Yet most people hardly ever spare the time for their health. They don’t really do any forms of decent aerobics exercise. Interestingly, however, quite a number of people spend a fortune on food supplements and some other vitamins in the hope of maintaining or improving their health. Anything but the forsaken physical exercise!

Last November, Y-Fitness was established in KK City Mall. That is very close to Taman Iramanis where I live. Membership is not exactly cheap as far as I am concerned, but I signed up anyway.

Now I have no more excuses not to exercise. Since all the equipment are located indoor, I can visit the gym any time from as early as 7:00 am in the morning up to 10:00 pm at night. I have been visiting the gym at an average of 3 times per week. And I would normally spend about 30 minutes running on the treadmill on each session. Depending on my mood—yes folks, men have moods too—I’d cover about 4 to 5 km per session. I have to force myself to keep it up, not only because my waistline would otherwise expand extremely fast, but also because I have a family history of diabetes and obesity, leading to heart problems.

Then I read about the Borneo International Marathon scheduled for 12 October this year. We don’t have many marathons organized here in KK. In fact, I can’t remember if we have had any before this. What we had in the past were short courses of 10 km and below; not marathons.

I have never joined any marathon before. The mere thought of 42 km makes me cringe with pain. I don’t think I have it in me to run—and keep running—for that distance. But upon reading up the Borneo International Marathon website, I noticed that there is such a thing as half-marathon, which means a distance of 21 km only. That is still a great distance for me, but at least it doesn’t sound so impossible to achieve.

Would it be possible for me to stretch the 4 to 5 km I normally do in the gym to 21 km? I think I can do it. There is only one way to find out. But I will need to train up my body for the feat.

And so yesterday morning, I went for a comprehensive medical check-up. In particular, I wanted to know if my heart is up to it. I think not many 43-year olds would go for a comprehensive medical check-up, but you know, with my family history and all, I decided not to take the risk. Well, it turned out that my blood pressure is borderline high, but not serious enough for me to have sleepless nights. And after doing a short session on the treadmill, the doctor gave me a clean bill of health. All those high-tech machines did not find any inconsistency in my heartbeats etc.

So bring it on! It's probably a good excuse to buy a new pair of shoes anyway. I heard that Adidas is offering RM50 discounts at selected outlets in KK in conjunction with the Borneo International Marathon. Not that I don't know that the original prices are several hundred percent overpriced anyway.

I have a little less than 3 months to train up for the 21 km run. Time is running short, so I will have to build up the distance within quite a short timeframe. I will have to make more visits to the gym—perhaps at least 4 to 5 times a week. Next week, I will try to accumulate up to 20 km. Then gradually increase that to 25 km to 30 km to 35 km and so on in the following weeks. Such a great jump from the average 15 km I usually accumulate per week.

I searched through some of my old stuffs and found this old bathroom scale. As of yesterday morning, I weighed about 73 kg. I‘m aiming to reduce that to at least 65 kg by 12 October.

I reckon that the treadmill sessions and the weight-loss (hopefully) should be able to help me to build up my speed and endurance. I was told that there is a time limit of 3 hours to complete the run. If I’m going to do this at all, I might as well do it within the allocated time. There is not much point if I were to walk all the way and reach the finish line when everyone had gone home.

So much to do in such a short time. While I am a bit worried of the task, I am also excited of the challenge.

I hope I will survive this to tell you all about it after 12 October.