Desperate to get out and exercise

My increasingly bloated physiology,

I follow advice that I’ve learned from life,

Two magic formulae, KISS and TOFFEE,

My first is: Keep It Simple Stupid!

Then: Time on Feet,-without the t!-well spent, I hope.

And I follow the wisdom undiluted,

Contained in the words of Alexander Pope:

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!

So on Friday morn, I did not rush,

Three miles of an incline! I slowed, kept my head,

I rested and drank, still the pace I didn’t push,

Then with gravity’s help, I went with the flow.

To err is human, that’s so very true,

Oh Lord, in the heat of the sun I did glow,

Felt my forces flag, but discretion grew,

At the five mile mark, yes, I ‘ummed and I erred,

“Live to fight another day”, as Falstaff might say,

“To the better part of valour you should defer,

Why risk injury or worse this month of May?

Surely five point three five miles is enough,

Five more in this sun would be no fun”.

I’ve nothing to prove, my past shows I’m stern stuff,

And as two and a half hours under this currant bun,

Is the most I’ve acheived for a couple of years,

It’s TOFFEE that’s king at my time of life,

So rehydrate in the pub with a couple of beers.

Here’s a KISS for you dear, mi owd trouble and strife!

 

• KISS is the advice I was given many years ago by a chap in the pub, where we had informal poetry readings, and when I was experimenting with writing my own poetry.

 

• TOFFEE is an acronym which I concocted from the phrase “Time On Feet”, which referres to an athletics training method attributed to Arthur Lydiard ONZ OBE.

 

• https://www.timeonfeet.com/lydiard