Sport and exercise

Q: Do you play any sport? A: Football, on and off, with a very informal group of friends on Sundays. Nothing competitive — half of us are more interested in the coffee afterwards than the actual match. It's less about the sport itself and more about having a fixed reason to see people every week. Q: How often do you exercise? A: Most days in some form, though it varies a lot in intensity. Running or football counts as the real exercise, maybe three times a week, and the rest is more like movement — walking, stretching, nothing that would really count if I'm being strict about the definition. Q: Do you prefer team or individual sport? A: Team, for the social side of it, even though I'm not naturally very competitive. Running I do alone and enjoy for different reasons — it clears my head — but I wouldn't want all my exercise to be solitary. There's something about being accountable to other people that gets me out the door when I otherwise wouldn't bother. Q: Was sport important at your school? A: Hugely, actually — probably more than the academic side, if I'm honest about how it felt at the time. We had sport almost every day, and looking back, that's probably where I picked up whatever discipline I have now, rather than from the classroom.