October 27th - Fitness

27/10/2008 by Brigid.

How beautiful are the Pyrenees in October? The colours are arguably more vivid now than at any other time of year. The sun reflects through nearly naked beech trees, picking out the remaining yellow and bronze leaves that fall like confetti around the walkers using the forest tracks. It is half-term, the vacance de Toussaint, and many parents are taking advantage of the last of the warm weather to take their kids camping in the mountains. People are still sunbathing at the Lac de Bareilles. But, despite the blue sky, the shadows are lengthening and the first snow has fallen above about 1100m.

The snow will melt again, of course, between now and the beginning of December, when the ski stations open for business. But, like last year, as soon as the clocks went back, John and I started worrying about our fitness. “This year”, we said to each other, “we will get real value for our lift passes”. No wasting half the season trying to ski ourselves fit, suffering with creaking joints, aching muscles and uncooperative ski boots. “No sir. Not this year!”

It has to be said, fitness hasn’t exactly topped our agenda over the summer and autumn months. And why should it? After all, with all that mountain walking, energetic decoration and renovation work on the house, good food and stress-free lifestyle, we ought to be fit as fiddles. Errr …

Suffice to say, a couple of months back, John and I bought our first set of bathroom scales. They are extraordinarily inaccurate. Yet, even allowing for the readings varying wildly according to the level of the floor, the heat of the room, or where one stands, there was no denying we could both do with losing a few pounds before embarking on our fitness regime. No point in starting before the summer holidays then …

John is relying on press-ups and squats to strengthen his upper body and thigh muscles. I decided on a more scientific approach and dug out my copy of Royal Canadian Air Force exercises: The XBX Plan for Physical Fitness for Women, which I probably bought in the 80’s, and haven’t used since. Unfortunately, it promptly fell apart. An omen, I think.

The XBX Plan was, as far as I remember, really quite efficient. The various charts are divided up into levels, with increasing numbers of repetitions for each exercise, and a final fitness target determined by age-group. The effectiveness of the regime relies on one being able to complete all the exercises within 12 minutes. Though I am not sure whether one is allowed extra for reading or retrieving loose pages from the bathroom floor.

I cannot, with hand on heart, say we have actually noticed any startling difference yet – two days into our regime. My stomach muscles ache a bit, which should be a good sign. But I am not sure if that is due to the exercise or the effort of shifting a 6kg cat who decided to sit on my hair while I was doing sit-ups …

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