Getting to this post was a mental and physical journey.
First off, I figured that unemployed people shouldn’t be signing up for virtual challenges, just so they can collect shiny medals to hang on a rack in the basement. That thought is both correct and incorrect, all at the same time. Yes, it is a bit of an indulgence. I’m paying for a medal that no one is ever going to see or care about. Clearly, that is frivolous, and not the best use of limited resources. I am absolutely capable of continuing to push myself to walk a certain number of steps every day without the promise of a medal every so many weeks. Also true.
What that logic missed is that hitting refresh on the Fitbit in the morning and seeing yesterday’s step count lacked some of the emotional punch of typing it into the app and seeing me inch closer to a goal. In theory, it shouldn’t matter, but it turns out, the gamification did have value. I try a bit harder when I see a prize at the end and (apparently), I still don’t believe in the promise of a fitter me nearly enough for it to be motivational in and of itself. So, I decided I was going to pay to enrol in a virtual challenge whilst unemployed. This is where the cheap part of my brain kicks in. If the important part of the endorphin rush comes from the promise of a future shiny medal, and I don’t emotionally need that medal to arrive every month or so, then the cost-effective solution to this problem is to enrol in the long-distance challenges. That way, my fee covers me for many months at a stretch, reducing my cost per kilometre.
This logical leap occurs just a bit before I figure out how to hack my workout. Since I started this particular plan in December 2020, I had been struggling to hit 10,000 steps a day, usually falling far short of my goal. It didn’t make any sense to me that I wasn’t knocking this goal out of the park, now that I wasn’t spending anywhere from 8 to 10 hours a day grinding away at work. It turns out that the problem wasn’t walking that distance, but how I chose to tackle it. I figured that since I have the most energy at the beginning of the day, I could do one long walk in the morning, and a short walk later in the day. Nope, no… I can’t. Every time I tried to stretch out that morning walk, I either got frustrated and stopped… or finished, but refused to do the second walk later in the day. It turns out that what I can do is two equal walks: one first thing in the morning, and one right after dinner in a desperate ploy to talk my body into not converting all those calories into another layer of winter insulation. Using this strategy, I am now able to meet or exceed my target ten or more days in a row before taking a day off (which is defined as doing only one of those two walks). Thanks to the change in approach, I can now do something I have been unable to achieve in the last five years of trying. Pretty cool. I’m also increasing the incline on the treadmill bit by bit, which is getting a lot more use now that the weather has turned cold. It turns out that winter insulation is for show only: it doesn’t seem to do a lick of good in keeping me warm when I am actually out there, walking in the cold. Go figure!
And that, dear folks, is half of the story of how I chose the Nakasendo Trail Virtual Challenge. It is 552 kilometres (343 miles) long, which ought to take me a bunch of months to finish at my new and improved plodding speed of around 7 kilometres a day. The content of the challenge mattered, too, not just the distance. The challenge goes from the old capital Kyoto through 69 post-towns and finishes in Tokyo. Along this virtual route, I will pass through bamboo forests, hot spring waters, charming settlements, castles, cobblestone streets and rural life in real Japan. This is not unlike the Japanese vacation I have wanted to take for upwards of 30 years now.
“Hang on”, says my ever-so-helpful brain. “You’re unemployed. Therefore, you have time to do things you couldn’t do while working for a bank. Like, for instance, spending two or three weeks exploring Japan, seeing things you’ve only seen on screens with your own eyes. Eating food made right in Japan, with Japanese ingredients, no substitutions.” I start getting excited about this possibility, and start researching trips. This is it! I’m finally doing it! No more waiting!
That’s how come after decades of wanting to go to Japan, I am hard at work trying to select a trip to South Korea.
Dear Reader, if you are sitting there wondering how I got from “you’re unemployed, stop shopping for silly trinkets” to “I need to go to the birthplace of kimchi”, then all you need to do is ask me to tell the next story.
감사합니다 (gamsahabnida) (thank you)
