193 reasons to stay fit.

One of the best things about running a bit, and doing other stuff that is good for your heart, is that you end up quite liking that pained feeling you get in your legs when you walk up stairs. I can remember being no where near as fit as I am now and struggling up some stairs once, panting when I got to the top, it's not a good feeling.

Now I look for the stairs. All 193 of them at Covent Garden tube station. It's a good test. Walk up them, briskly and with purpose. Breathe only through your nose.

Keep going. Safe in the knowledge that the feeling in your legs is not your body giving up, but simply its way of saying "all's well down here, we're in the game". It's a good feeling.

It can be lonely, though occasionally you'll see a stray tourist confused at where they went wrong, but bit of loneliness in London is sometimes a good thing.

So walk the escalator. But also walk the stairs, especially when there are 193 of them.

Comments

[The Wife]

Why does one need to breathe through one's nose when climbing stairs?

[Ben]

I've done that once. Many of your moons ago.

Never again.

(Climb those stairs that is, I breathe through one's nose all the time.)

[Colman]

Can encourage deeper breathes, but not crucial.

[Rusty-Chubb]

You should be working at Nike. Finding inspiration in the everyday.

Perhaps Russell's old job?

[Colman]

Thank you Rusty (I think). I've been waiting for the call, but it never seems to come.

[Fraser]

Even Scotsmen do it - September, when visiting Simon and Louise in Covent Garden.

Fraser