![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jss.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Takanori-Kuge-Nov_2024.jpg\")
Takanori Kuge<\/p>\nTakanori Kuge<\/p>\n
Hello everyone, this is Kuge, the counselor.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, instead of talking about my work at JSS, I\u2019d like to share something about my hobby.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From my late 30s to early 40s, I used to participate in half-marathons, full marathons, and trail running races. However, six years ago, I suffered a major knee injury, which led me to step away from running.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Considering the strain running puts on the knees and the fact that I am now in my 50s, I thought I would never seriously take up running again. However, after watching the Hakone Ekiden during the New Year holidays, I was inspired to give running another try. So, on January 3rd, I started running again. At that moment, I set two goals somewhat on a whim:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since I love exercising and play tennis almost every evening from spring to autumn, I was fairly confident in my physical fitness. I assumed that running 6 km a day wouldn\u2019t be too difficult. However, once I started, I quickly realized how challenging it was. By the second day, I was already struggling with muscle soreness and a fierce snowstorm, which nearly broke my resolve.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For the first six days, I forced my heavy body to move purely out of stubbornness and habit, just barely meeting my 6 km minimum. But on the seventh day, I experienced a breakthrough. The muscle soreness I had felt before was almost gone, my breathing and leg fatigue had significantly improved, and I was able to run about 9 km at a much faster pace than before, without much effort. I was honestly shocked by how suddenly things changed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the mental side, for the first six days, my thoughts were overwhelmingly negative:<\/span> But on the seventh day, my mindset completely shifted:<\/span> I truly realized how deeply the mind and body are connected.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This winter in Toronto has been particularly harsh. There have been days when the wind chill dropped below -20\u00b0C, days with blizzard warnings and 20 cm of snowfall, and even a slightly terrifying encounter in the middle of the night when I locked eyes with two coyotes on a trail.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, from January 3rd to today, March 12th, I haven\u2019t skipped a single day\u2014I\u2019ve kept up my daily minimum of 6 km. Some days, the weather or my physical condition makes running unappealing, but at this point, I genuinely enjoy it. Here are a few reasons why:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Numerous medical studies have proven that walking, power walking, and jogging significantly improve both mental and physical health. Now that Toronto is finally transitioning into a pleasant spring, why not incorporate these activities into your daily routine?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, instead of talking about my work at JSS, I\u2019d like to share something about my hobby.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":20329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,280,244],"tags":[288],"class_list":["post-20332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jss-newsletter-march-2025-en","category-news","category-jss-newsletter","tag-counsellor-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20364,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332\/revisions\/20364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n\u201cWhy am I running in this freezing cold?\u201d<\/span>
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no benefit to this.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u201cIn fact, this might even be bad for my body\u2014maybe I should just quit.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis feels great!\u201d<\/span>
\n\u201cI\u2019m so glad I pushed through for a week!\u201d<\/span>
\n\u201cMaybe I can actually achieve my goal!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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