day 32

So they recently restricted jogging hours to before 10am and after 7pm.  Add to this the fact that I have to handwrite the “why am I out” certificate every single time is enough to stop me from going jogging.  

This wasn’t hard because I never really jogged in the first place.  Before I walked everywhere so I figured this was enough but since the lockdown the furthest I’d walk in a day is the length of the apartment.  

After about a week of eating junk food as an activity, not walking much, and no jogging, I started to think perhaps I needed to get my heartrate up so I picked up something I hadn’t picked up since high school.  A jump rope. 

It’s not easy to jump rope.  It requires that your arms and feet work as a team against a rope that, when turns rapidly becomes invisible, attacking your feet every half second.  When it gets your feet it really hurts and your feet wonder why the arms don’t ever get punished for the discoordination.  Hit your feet enough times and they start to feel like the arms are doing it just for fun.

First I tried the two feet at the same time jumping which made me feel like a giant rabbit.   I then tried the one foot at a time like you’re walking on hot coals complete with the curled up toes as the foot on the ground waits its turn before it can lift itself up again in the air again to avoid the dreaded invisible rope.  This one I’m better at.

I can do it consecutively for about one minute before I miss which is actually a very long time.  What’s weird is that the longer I’m able to avoid the rope the more stressful it becomes because since it’s invisible when my feet clear it I’m like, “did it get?” and then I remember the next one is coming right up so I have to clear that one and then repeats until my heart rate is not only up because of all that jumping but also because if all the stress.

I found the best thing to do is not to think about it, find a good rhythm and to just keep on going.