Day 21: slow and steady

Today is a fast day in terms of busyness and activities. Lots done, lots to do. Tonight after work, waiting for Becky to come home with the house keys (left mine at church on Sunday), I walk to the local supermarket to buy some electricity for our pre-pay meter. As I walk, I take a slow, steady pace, feeling a twinge of pain every time my foot extended and put it down to make another step. From the guys who were with me on the paintballing, I get a knowing, sympathetic nod. From others a strange stare or giggle as they wonder what caused me to become so fragile and frail. Need to pick up proper exercise tomorrow... can't believe it's already 21 days!

Day 20: ouchie

OK, I knew that I was on an adrenaline high yesterday, but boy-o-boy today I'm paying for it! Walking like I'm appearing in a John Wayne movie I feel like everytime I lift my legs I am being shot again as the tightening of the over-stretched muscles rub against my ever-sore bruises. Going up the stairs to my first floor office was taken one very slow step at a time. Feeling weak and feeble (and somewhat pathetic), I spot across the road a colleague also aching and complaining about his injuries.
Went for a drink this afternoon with another friend who was also at the paintballing. He asked me 'how's it?'. I knew from the look on his face exactly what he meant. "One word," I replied, "sore". We both smiled as we realised that we are either super unfit, or paintballing is just one of those games you should only do once about every 5 years or so!
Needless to say for the next two days I am going to limit my exercise to very slow walking!

Day 19: paintballing

I never expected that running through the woods shooting balls of paint at other missionaries could be so exhausting! Layers came off and the sweat was running. There is a huge amount of adrenalin involved in these outside games, where we re-inact potential combat situations, like surviving an ambush, rescuing an injured victim (bob, the stuffed person) or 'protecting the drug lord'. Though paintballs are pretty harmless (apart from to the eyes, hence the need for facemasks!), they don't half sting when they hit you. After each sequence of games, we would come out of the 'danger zone', wash the paint off our masks and share our 'war wounds' of newly shining bruises to our fellow YWAMers! Thank you Gerhard for deciding to celebrate your birthday in this way and thank you, to Melanie, for allowing your husband to get the guys together for a bit of true male-bonding! The adrenalin is pumping and I'm feeling like I can conquer the world. I'm sure tomorrow my body will remind me of its limitations though!

Day 18: still feeling sick

When will this cold leave me?
I think tonight will be a press-ups night. I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow. Not done anything as yet! I think at the end of the thirty days, I will have a sort-of routine of 30-40 press-ups 3-4 times a week, which, if I stick at it, will be an accomplishment! Let's see, still early days.
Tomorrow I'm paintballing for a friend's birthday, so no fear about not doing my exercises then!

Day 17: off ill

Have caught Joshie's cold. Feeling rough. Did 10 Joshie push ups. That's enough for today. Please Lord help me to feel better tomorrow.

Day 16: Power walking

Lovely sunny day. Joshua was a bit grisly, still suffering from a bad head cold and wasn't in the mood to nap in his cot in his room. So went on a power walk through Muizenberg and along Main Road. Felt somewhat good, though I probably only covered about 2km.

Day 15: oh dear

26 measly press-ups. Come-on Pete, you can do better than this. Yes, 118 (British humour, apologies for the lack of explanation. For non-Brits, just Google "118 men" and you'll find out what I mean). Tomorrow is a new day: task: to run somewhere!

Day 14: Oops

See point 7... love it

It's been 4 days since my last blog post... how on earth did that happen!? In that time, I have only managed two sessions with my wife 'spotting' me. Built it up to over 30 press-ups and 50 sit-ups. But it's not what I intended - something every day for 30 days. So, on day 11, I officially failed to achieve 30 days. However, it's given me the chance to reflect on what I'm doing and what it means. If this were breaking an addiction, then a lapse after 11 days would definitely be a blow. But it wouldn't stop me from thinking that I could put something extra into the next days to try and meet the thirty day mark with just a couple of lapses. So... onwards. I have taken tomorrow off work, as a chance to rest from a heavy few weeks at work. However, rest from stress does mean't that I can't pick up my 'new habit' again and get those legs and arms moving! I pledge to blog tomorrow, having done something that I, at least, can be proud of. I won't publicise this blog again on facebook until I succeed in doing at least something positive!