Monday, January 28, 2008

lane swimming

Somewhere back earlier last year, when it got darker and colder in the mornings, and study for my NZ fauna paper took all my early morning energy, I stopped going to the pool and lane swimming. And once stopped, it is one of those things that seems difficult to restart.
But finally I have restarted! I figure that cross-training should be the 'name of the game' now for getting fit before I depart. And this morning I jumped in for just over half an hour of lane swimming.
I was pleased to find that my current training, walking up hills, meant I wasn't short of breath at all, though my shoulders did wonder what was going on. My leg muscles loved the more gentle treatment they got waddling in the pool, using different muscles from my walking ones. (I do only waddle in the pool too... I have a hopeless kicking style that gets me nowhere fast!)
I got home and absolutely loved the 'alive' feeling my whole body had after the swim. A pleasure I had forgotten all about. So.... as I am only going to be doing casual, on-call work now until my departure... if the phone hasn't gone by 7.45am, I might well be off to the pool!

8 comments:

  1. Well done Kiwi! I am a great believer in cross training as it gets an all-round fitness.

    It's not much use if you just want to be a runner, tennis player, etc. as you need to do running to be a runner, tennis to be a player etc.

    For long distance walking you need it all. Endurance, strength, flexibility. You will get the endurance and strength from walking and the flexibility from swimming. Do you do yoga or weights?

    Lorenzo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Sounds like you are training for the SAS!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yikes no lorenzo... weights bore me silly, and I have never been into yoga. Swimming feels very nice on my leg muscles after so much walking though. Today I plan a nice slow mini-triathlon. I will cycle to a friend's who lives near the pool.. take the long walking route through a park to the pool, swim.... then cycle home...
    maalie.... I think some of the toughest days of my whole walk are actually the first few days out of Le Puy where there are some steep ups and downs. So I want to be ready for them! Only two months to go now!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was gong for a ride today but I cnfess its simply too hot...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I doubt that I would go out for any exercise at all if I lived in an OZ summer.... except at about 6am for a short burst. I am hiding out in the afternoons here as it is!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Actually it was 29 here today,so a great day to get down to the swimming pool. Probably will be about the same tomorrow. We are having a great summer;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. A mini triathlon sounds fun!

    The first few days are always the worst. You get so strong by day four though.
    Lorenzo.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lorenzo.... I gather that the first few days are amongst the steepest - both with ascents and descents- on the whole trek.. until you climb up onto a plateau. Then your next biggest climb, if I get that far, is over the Pyrenees. But by then I should be so superbly fit, that it should be more of a breeze!

    ReplyDelete