Unfit for purpose

-

A few years back, when I still went to the gym, I was having trouble staying motivated. Jenson Button was in the news and F1 on ITV had featurettes on how he was working to step up his fitness to the levels required for the sport. Using that as my inspiration, I pushed myself harder and managed to stay reasonably fit for a while. Certainly fit enough for the karting I was doing at the time.

These days, I’ve got different motorsport-related motivation, but this time I’m starting from a base level of absolute unfitness. Last night, I went out for a jog (yes, in public), possibly for the first time in my life. It’s a good job it was dark — my lungs gave up after less than a mile and I had to stop. Scary! When I got home after a further mile and a bit, my legs nearly gave way when I stopped. I’ve never been particularly fit, but it’s alarming what the last 2 or 3 years of inactivity have done to me. Let’s just hope things improve over the next couple of weeks.

Popular posts from this blog

Driving the Tank

-
I don’t normally give cars nicknames. With the Zed, however, I’m tempted to call it The Tank. Not because of its size or muscularity, but as an abbreviation of sensory deprivation tank. Yep, that’s right — and it’s not a good thing. The test-drive concerns I had about the 350Z being too comfortable a car are still with me. Except now, I’ve translated that nebulous feeling of unease into a sense that it simply doesn’t provide enough feedback. Journeys at night and in wet weather can be absolutely exhausting. I find myself trying to heighten my senses to the tiniest cues coming through the steering wheel, chassis and pedals. Often I’ll end up leaning forward in my seat, as if listening to a quiet friend in a noisy pub. Thankfully, however, it’s not like that all the time. When you put your foot down and hustle it a bit, the car starts talking again. You begin to feel you’re dictating things rather than reacting to them. Sadly, I’ve had very little opportunity to grab the bull by the
Read more

Windfall

-
You get a £500 bonus at work — how do you spend it? The big decision for half of my colleagues appears to have been XBox 360 or Playstation 3? Myself, I’ve opted for a front bumper respray. Of course, as soon as I said as much, I was told, quite earnestly, that I really need to stop thinking about cars so much. Hehe. Well, it made me laugh anyway. :) Yes, I might well be chucking money away — I doubt the work will add the equivalent value to the car come the day I sell it — but it won’t half improve my enjoyment of the car. As it stands, the polka-dot affair I’ve got at the moment (courtesy of Bill Heaney’s crap finishing) makes my heart sink every time I approach the thing. In just a week’s time, I’m going to be smiling again instead. It’s been at least 6 months since that last happened (the lack of blogging here in that time is no coincidence) and maybe it’ll reinvigorate me full-stop. Dammit, I love driving too much to feel depressed about my car. Roll on the good times. Oh, a
Read more