Exercise Junkie

I am coming out............yes, I am a bit of an exercise junkie. I really enjoy my afternoon swim training. And I am getting a bit serious.

There is the joy of chasing the black line and the graceful feeling of water sliding past your body, especially if travelling a bit fast doing freestyle, and really developing a rythmic side movement of the body as you twist from side to side, swimming down your arm. No one can get you unless they come to the end of the pool. NO......music [ although that is optional these days], mobile and regular phones, e-mails, noise, and at least where I train, not too many people in a lane.

There are some serious open water swims coming up here from about June, including the Pee Wees to the Trailer Boat Club swim - about 2.4km open water across Darwin Harbour. Are there sharks? Well, the common answer here is that, no there are no sharks.......the crocodiles ate them. But seriously, they check the area and with a few hundred swimmers entered, there is a fair bit of protection around.

These types of open water swim are becoming very popular around Australia with many now in SE Australia in the summer time. Just don the budgie smugglers and away you go. [ Budgie Smugglers aka Speedos, swimmers, togs, cozzies, racers, nylons, lycras; those skimpy ones worn by Olympic swimmers in previous Games - except that many are, like me of a different, older, more mature generation......and women too!]

Back to the training.......it is finally starting to make a difference. I have put in some hard metres in the pool , some tough interval swim sessions and at the gym on weights and strength training, and training times and interval periods are coming down. Everyone has good sessions and definitely not so good training sessions, for all sorts of reasons; with work for many being a seriously interfering factor in training.

No luxury of being a full time athlete, although these days, surprisingly, many mature age competitors [retired] are able to train.....and they do.....virtually full time. Most, though, do work or run a business, and putting in the training can be an effort. BUT.....getting organised does help!

It is still many weeks to go to June, but recent results are heartening. I won my age group last year; I would like to do well again this year.