Buzzkill

I stumbled upon Sylvester Stallone the other day working out isometrically. This means at the age of seventy five he has finally come round to the idea that lifting weights is not entirely a good thing for the bones and joints. Things start seizing up when you get old he says as if we didn't know. At any rate, the Italian stallion is a figure to behold midway through his eighth decade here on Earth. He now works out with rubber bands (by the looks of it on the coast in front of the ocean), stretching his way to fitness and health. 'Boredom is a buzzkill' he says when referring to gyms and the repetitive act of weightlifting or treadmilling. Which is why I cycle round the strath, and gave up gyms about ten years ago. Because when you're out in the open naturally, the exercise never seems like exercise, it never imposes itself upon you like it does in a gym. Wild cycling means you're fluid and always going somewhere in the open which means you never focus on the exercise itself. There are other things that require your attention other than  the size of your biceps. Nature enters the fray, whether it be the spray off the ocean, or that kestrel over there that thinks it can outfly me. The wind, the rain, the cloud cover, the sun, are all also present. Naturally. The variety of topography is also felt as one cycles through it. There is real diversity in the open. The buzzkill thus never enters. Boredom has never reared its head in the forty odd years that I've been on my bicycle. Which means my buzz has never been killed. And the buzz, as all wild animals will tell you, is everything.