It's Wednesday morning and we're busy scribbling this piece for today's edition. It hasn't been easy. Not because of writer's cramp. More because of leg cramp. We're distressed. Muscles are aching. Thankfully it's not COVID.

It's all our own fault. For the previous afternoon we decided to return to the treadmill.

Yep, we went on a run. We left the comfort of our now well-worn lounge and went on a very leisurely jog. The results were there for all to see on Wednesday. It wasn't a pretty sight. Contacting close relatives was considered.

Now, contrary to popular theory, we usually run a fair bit and not just away from creditors. We're even a semi-regular at the Taree parkrun.

However, our enthusiasm for such activities was quashed when the State went into lockdown on August 14. Lockdowns tend to do that. We were lucky for at least we were still able to work. There was an excuse to get out of bed of a morning.

However, working from home is a bit soul destroying as well. So if our soul was destroyed, as least our soles had a reprieve, for a few layers of dust settled on our treadmill. We'd look at it before deciding that we'd start running another day.

That set the trend for those long weeks. We exorcised exercise.

We did rally slightly when this Local Government Area (LGA) was released from detention mid-September, although to be honest it was only a half-hearted revival.

Then Editor Bell intervened.

"There's no sport for you to copy and paste at the moment, so you might as well take a week off,'' she kindly directed.

It was here we planned to make a full return to running, once we'd recovered from watching the NRL grand final.

We compiled a lengthy dossier outlining our run program for the week. We were psyched and ready to go on a holiday fitness spree.

Then on the Monday night we were told the place was going back into lockdown.

So we spent last week watching movies and drinking stubbies while lying on the lounge.

We returned to work the day the State came out of lockdown last Monday. Making an appearance at the hostelry that night after a week's absence had precedence over a jog, we concluded.

However, there were no excuses on Tuesday evening. It was treadmill time again as we called fulltime on lockdown lethargy.

As mentioned, Wednesday was difficult as a result.

At the time of writing we weren't too confident that the running revival would continue.

In fact, Mrs Bell, is it okay if we go home a bit earlier today? No. Okay, we'll battle on then. Groan.