The Pleasure of Play

Yesterday I looked at the weather forecast and it showed grey clouds and heavy rain. Sure enough when I woke up it was both wet and cold, so a good day for the gym.

I very rarely go to the on Sunday and was quite surprised at how crowded it was. The pool was particularly full, and as the treadmills overlook the swimmers, this was quite diverting. There are as many variations in styles of swimming as there are of running but many of them seem incredibly inefficient. I know I am in no position to talk because I am not much of a swimmer but looking down from above you can clearly see those who really fight the water. One girl swam the crawl without getting her hair wet (I have no idea how this is possible as her body must have been at about 30 degrees to the surface), someone else swam the breaststroke with their body at an angle to the direction of travel and a man swam crawl with a round arm style that looked like a butterfly cross. They must have all worked really hard to get from one end of the pool to the other, whilst others managed to keep their body in a straight line and cleave through the water much more easily.

The contrast in swimming efficiency is very stark but it made me think about running style and how keeping your body in line is a similarly advantage. One of my New year Resolutions was to be more upright and so on all my slow runs I spend a fair amount of time thinking about form, about being balanced, looking ahead and not leaning. I tell myself to let the legs feel loose, as if they were turning over rather than pushing. I have no real idea as to whether this actually helps my form but constantly telling myself to be easy helps my attitude as it is only a small jump from ease to enjoyment.

When I came out of the gym the sky was blue with white clouds - good running weather. Ah well!

But my time had not been wasted and I felt pretty good. On my walk back I passed some sort of event where there was a trampoline catapult. I loved looking at how some of the kids really enjoyed bouncing up so high. It takes children to remind you of the pleasures of play.

Juneathon, I think, is just a reminder to play every day.

Juneathon Day 7 stats:

Run: 6.5k
Resistance machines: back, abs, pectoral fly, arm press, shoulder press, static rower
Stretches
Time 1 hour 15 min.