It's walking and it's working - IV

An app in a tizzy

I am a bit crestfallen but not discouraged. On Friday, the 6^th of November, I should have completed a 100-day streak of at least 10,000 steps daily which started on the 30^th of July. My Huawei Health app should have unveiled the medal of achievement for that feat, it did not.

On further scrutiny of the situation, it seems there were was a glitch in the app that messed up the statistics for the week commencing the 25^th of October, the weekly report is not tabulating the daily counts from the 26^th for that week, though the daily view evidently shows I completed each threshold comfortably.

When looking at the monthly report, it is the 26^th of October that is missing, and it might require working with the Huawei support teams to fix this. So far, I can report that at the end of the 6^th of November, I had walked 1,922,073 steps.

It still works beautifully

I probably will not go out for a walk today, I have been trying to catch up on some lost sleep, the last week was fraught. My average night’s sleep for the week was 4 hours and 29 minutes, just not nearly enough.

On the walking front, there is progress, I have not been able to shift my weight much below 80 kilogrammes, it would probably be stuck around that number. My waist size is reduced that I can fit in shorts that I had forsaken months ago and generally, I feel fit, but for the niggling insomnia that commands some interest, concern, and attention.

On the whole, I can still attest to the fact that it is walking and it is working, I do not have to lift weights, run, jog, or perform any other exercises. It is likely I might have to do some abdominal exercises to firm up my stomach, but the distinctive paunch from earlier in the year is gone. Much as I see many jogging on my early morning walks, I have found the routine and regime that works for me and I will continue with it.

Different speeds on two feet in the park

Every little step I take

Stepping out at the break of dawn, the morning breaks with a chill and the morning dew, the weather turning as you make your way almost too far from home for you to turn around, as the need for shelter is lost to the quest to complete a quota before you resume for work.

Briskly, as you set your walking exercise, the tracker on your wrist buzzes reading your heart rate as you set out to either break personal records or just have it on the record. In the business district, you weave, and you are notified of the first kilometre.

The doorways or the nooks of large shops have sleepers, the homeless whose stories we know little of, whether they are warm enough, or will have a supply for the day and can dream of a future, we do not know. Yet, fortitude and providence does raise people from the strangest places to make a fantastic story, maybe we can angels in that journey too.

A river of curls

Reaching the edge of the city centre, you have crossed the River Irwell twice and the industrial suburb beckons for your second kilometre, though your third crossing of the river is a few hundred metres short of your third kilometre and you are well into the City of Salford.

Your fourth crossing of the river and soon after then fifth is leaves your fourth kilometre between, and the park is just in view where the circuit you walk is just about 2.2 kilometres. When you begin to make your way home by another route on a busier road, there is probably another two crossings of River Irwell and you realise this is a river that meanders through Manchester, though its course is unlikely to change in the near future.

The people of the park

The park begins to come alive as the light of day bathes it with a welcome giving you the sight of others roused to move. An elderly lady with two male companions take a walk she speaks, they nod, it is the first morning greeting, as she feeds the birds, the ducks and the geese with bread crumbs.

Further on, one man and his dog on a leash, then another man with his two dogs, one dog walking into my path whilst the other is taking him for a walk, pulling hard and demanding of motion. The lady in a hijab, sometimes walking and other times running, says good morning, we smile and she’s gone.

It’s in the family

A father pushing a perambulator combining baby-sitting with running, whether it is fun or not, the baby remains in deep slumber, as would I if I have the rocking motion of a vehicle to comfort me.

A mother brings her son to the park, he rides his bicycle as she goes for a run, then over the bridge, two kids on their scooters arrive with their dad, they make for the children’s play area, but it is still in the quiet of the day. Eschewing the cacophony that comes with music from my headphones, I take in the sounds of nature, the river rolling over rocks, the leaves rustling in the trees, the birds making different sounds a haven of the variety of life.

Another few people visit the park to run, each with a different circuit, all of different sizes and have I just recognised a face from one of those profiles of idle distraction, not that I venture a confirmation of my curiosity. The many greetings I make turn into a short conversation with a couple that walks through the park, each time noticing how different I was from the day before. It is a quick chat; I might get to know their names.

Then I return

As I leave, I have 9 kilometres in my trek and three more to go for my doorway. People walk or run, but none are doing the brisk walk I do. I can’t run and yet, I work up a good sweat that calls for my flannel at certain times.

Workmen sauntering to work are surprised at my hurried passing, I am only held back at the traffic crossings until one of them picks up a traffic cone and bellows out to me about exceeding the speed limit. I acknowledge him with a wave and 20 minutes later, I am at home.

This blog covers the subject of the blog I lost yesterday; I do not know if it is as good as the original but getting it out of my system means I can go on to other things.

Blog - A lost blog inspiration

Decade Blogs - Kunle Durojaiye - Keep Running!

Decade Blogs

The number of times I have missed the opportunity to meet Kunle Durojaiye, I would not count, yet, he is one of those young and amazing thinkers (thematic as his Twitter profile suggests) I would so love to meet.

I was quite pleased when he responded positively to my request that he write something for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Kunle, a Cranfield alumnus holds court on Twitter with the handle @kunledee and blogs at http://kunledurojaiye.com/.

Here, Kunle writes about keeping at it, and whilst I have kept at blogging for 10 years, there are other areas of my life that I have been a poor starter, a worse planner with rotten persistence, like going to the gym, even if I still look a bit trim.

There is much for me to learn from this as I believe it would find some deep resonance with you. Thank you.

Keep Running!

Consistency, the name of the game! Life and its many self-appointed coaches have often taught us that the starting point to any endeavor is a vision, a concept, a dream, an idea, and perhaps rightly so. How come history remains replete with numerous accounts of ventures that started, but were aborted midway?

Of course, there could be many factors responsible for such but what remains an instructional lesson is the fact that starting is essential but certainly not everything.

There are people who are excellent starters. They do not suffer from the typical inertia many others face at the starting point. They think it and get it going; nothing stops them. Then, there are those who are slower to get running, they spend a great deal of time planning, preparing and re-preparing.

Of these categories, the jury may be out on which is preferred and recommended, but what will distinguish them eventually is staying power - the ability to run and keep running.

How else do you judge the success of an endeavor if not via results produced and sustained over time?

The ability to remain resolute and committed to a vision is a key quality of achievers and performers. They know that the goal set for/by them is worth weathering the storm for. As such, climbing over rocks and hard places is part of their race. They manage to stay fixated despite everyday challenges and by large, the law of diminishing returns. They exude staying power.

Again, there is some relativity to this. People think up ideas and within a year or two, the concepts are dead and gone. The extraordinary few probably linger for up to five years. So, keeping at something continuously, consistently for 10 years is indeed laudable... and this is what Akin Akintayo has demonstrated through his blog www.akinblog.nl.

For some, writing is an inherent trait, an inborn skill that requires little effort to activate and sustain. In Nigerian parlance, 'it isn't an easy something'. The ability to stick with a concept and run it through in spite of down time, challenges, life lessons, discouragement, and whatnot is a commendable attribute

As this milestone is celebrated, one hopes the lessons apparent are being noted and served to readers, and all as pointers for future endeavors. Don't just start, stay! Don't just begin, progress! Don't just initiate, execute! Don't just think, do! Don't just run, keep running!

Hurdles always topple over

Running for fun

I have never been that athletic but I do remember that in my early teens I used to do long distance running just for the fun of it but never in competition.

I did try out hurdles and much as the hurdles look daunting from the starting line, they are set up to topple down forwards when hit by a hurdling error of the runner.

Hobbling over hurdles

Basically, a hurdle is not fixed to the ground as some insurmountable obstacle, whilst the best technique would glide over the hurdle without touching it, the runner would surely find out that they are only slightly slowed down if the hurdle is hit but the hurdle usually would not stop the runner in their tracks.

Even so, life is full of hurdles, but there are many who see those hurdles as big high impregnable walls of Jericho that they are overwhelmed and already defeated before they find out that it is hurdle and not a solid wall.

The big money wall

I was chatting to a young ambitious man this evening that was trying to enter business school but had been slapped with a EUR 12,000 fee as a guarantee that he would pursue the study rather than embark on other activities.

It is unfortunate, that some of those before had abused the foreign student programme by obtaining visas for study and then going into full employment – new laws have been promulgated to avoid such abuse.

Looking at the situation, I averred that it was a hurdle rather than an insurmountable obstacle, I opined that it was quite unlikely that a foreign student had deposited EUR 12,000 in the college’s bank account because that would be a greater incentive to work and probably engage in nefarious money making schemes.

A surety of confidence

My view was that the EUR 12,000 was the monetary value of a surety that guarantees that the person would make study their primary purpose whilst availing themselves of the maximum 20 hour a week working time.

This meant, if the person were able to produce a surety; a respectable member of society who knew the student, exercised a modicum of control over the student’s activities with some sort of monitoring agreement and had confidence in the student’s abilities, the fee can be waived on that recognisance.

Surety of conviction

A foreigner might not be able to produce such a surety on short notice without developing a trusting and working relationship, however, if the student in persistence and determination is able to convince a lecturer or some academic of their potential, commitment and ambition a surety might arise to allow a waiver.

The student creates a conviction that persuades the academic to provide the support to obtain access and gain a waiver of sorts.

In other words, the fee would always be an obstacle to those who do not exert themselves beyond that first refusal; it is however, just a hurdle to those who realise that the purpose of the fee and think round the issue.

I cannot say I convinced the young man of my views, but at least I gave him a perspective that made little of what once looked impossible and unattainable.

I have seen many examples of people who refused to be deterred by the big money requirement and ended up realising their dream without suffering that financial outlay – what looks like a wall, might well be a curtain, hurdles are not fixed to the ground, and they topple over when knocked, hit or just tripped over by a runner, but if you were just walking by, you'll never really find out that truth.