Convalesco

The last few days, I start making exercise on a regular basis. I go to basketball games with my friends and when basketball is not possible, I run across a small hill that is situated almost 3 km from home. There’s a small church there and you can see the entire north part of the city. I like very much doing exercises like push ups, abdominal exercising and various others cardio exercises enjoying the view from the small hill.

The vision is not spectacular, I’ve seen better, but it’s enough to give you the tranquility to free your mind and think about yourself and your issues¹. The bad thing about this specific hill is that you can see too many garbage down the hill. I’d like it much better if it would be clean. But Greece is not Swiss and it will never be, so you can’t expect people to respect a hill. It’s a matter of culture more than anything else after all.

This neighbourhood is as vivid as it can be. You can see children and old people, mostly, walking around all the time, so you’re not actually alone in the fields or anything like it. I like running, with a slow but steady pace. I need to lose some pounds so it’s the best choice for me I guess.

I’d always like adrenaline sports like snowboard, basketball, mountain bikes, jet skiing, track racing, etc. Running though, with some nice R & B music to give me rhythm, makes me relax and feel good. I must regulate my alimentary habits also. It’s not hard to do if you are alone, but these days, almost once every two days we meet with friends and we always east something at night before going to bed. I’ve seen too many people making exercise at least 30 minutes per day for a year or so and still being really fat. They had an excellent physical condition, ready for skiing or biking, but their image was not “optimal”. That’s because the didn’t follow any exact diet. Nutrition quality and bad habits are of importance here!

Running on the this neighbourhood although is relaxing and enjoyable has it’s drawbacks also. It’s not a rare thing to encounter a car or a bike that passes by and pollute the atmosphere. For someone who is walking there, especially with a slow pace, it’s not much of an issue. For me though it’s really unpleasant, because all that smoke goes directly into my chest. I hate the smell of it, not to mention that I have every now and then small asthma attacks when I get tired. I need to get a medicine to breath normally when this happens, so for me clean air is really important. This is the only reason for which I’m considering switching place of exercise.

Running these last days in this open environment, despite all the issues that may rise, it’s by far better than the gym. It’s the direct contact with nature that has no artificial substitute. You relax and enjoy the ride and the view that’s maybe the best part of it all…

1. Everybody has more or less serious issues requiring an answer [↩]