'.....which made me feel better, as honest toil alway does'

Ronnie does the hickey shuffle

22.01.2015
Day 283
Training with Erik-Lee, involving, hickey shuffle, low hurdles, battle rope, bicep curls and chest stretching
Cycle to Southwark Park to lead a Buggy Runner session (two women), then cycled to Waterloo, to spend some time in Earlsfield on family visit.

On waking with a hangover and a head full of regrets, with fatigue pounding away at temples and mild dehydration symptoms, the  temptation is to swerve away from training in favour of gloomily nursing cups of coffee before the working day. You rise, however, and you pedal wearily through the ringingly cold air to a chilly Hillyfields, where your trainer and co-trainees are already stuck inot the session. Three circuits in, you're warmed up, you're wisecracking merrily, panting effectively and feeling much, much better. Self loathing forgotten as the heart pumps. Endorphins are not a myth peddled by exercise evangelists.  I don't believe it's just sportive exercise, either. Sometimes digging energetically in the garden, polishing a window determinedly can make life feel worthwhile (I once made myself feel less weepy by deciding the smudgy window view from my desk wa getting me down as much as the rejection I'd been dealt, and scrubbing it to a sparkle) . I can usually find a Jill Crewe (Ruby Ferguson's jodhpur-wearing hero from the 1950s) quote to fit most bills, and here is one that springs to mind. Having beem crossed in some way, Jill 'has a good howl', then sets to and cleans the cottage and makes tea for herself and her mum, which...(title quote supplied). A wise girl, indeed.