Swimming to stay in shape

I've been swimming as a way to stay in shape which is not that likely to lead to injuries. And being in South Florida, I can swim outside 12 months a year! I've even thought of putting a harness onto my home pool so I can train there (my home pool is too small to get much practice. So now I'm trying to improve my stroke. I had myself videoed, what do you think? I think that I should learn to kick properly:








Here's another video of my stroke from October. I was at my least in shape at that point. I look at this video often to give myself motivation.


 

Nature versus being a black belt

I came back from the vacations this summer determined to take my cardio, strength, and flexibility training to a new level. I would get up early, I would run, I would stretch twice daily, I would have abs that I was pleased to show off, I'd get comfortable with a lot of pushups, I would get thru sparing without having my arms and legs grow heavy.....

I was determined.....But last week, I started to slide a little. It started with the running. I'm just tired of running. It's repetitive and it's been awhile since I've had a running group or partner. I find that I just don't look forward to going out the way I use to. Plus, I'm tired of getting out of bed when it's so cozy to stay in.

Sunday, I got a little sick. Not quite sure what but the symptons included weakness, stomach, stiffness, and tiredness. So I didn't fight it. I just went with nature and I didn't work out from Saturday through Wednesday. Didn't even stretch. It might not seem like a long layoff but it broke the momentum that I had established for my comeback from the 5 weeks of vacation this summer and the injuries this past spring.

I came back and sparred Thursday night and through luck of the draw, got tired but didn't get massacred. OK, we never get massacred but there are people with whom I feel just terrible when I'm their partner and not up to being the type of partner that I'd like to be. I was lucky in that my last two matches of the night were against guys that I could spar with without really having to exert myself. This mostly means that I could give them a good match by just boxing and moving with little or no kicking (It's the kicking that really burns thru my energy). Which was lucky since there wasn't that much left for me to exert.

So here's my new plan for getting back in shape. Since I'm moving next week (another reason that I'm feeling burned out) and will be close to an LA Fitness, I'll join it and start doing cardio in shiny air conditioned gym comfort instead of out by myself in the muggy Florida weather. And instead of those repetitive pushups in my house, I'll set myself a lifting program at the gym. Maybe that change of venue will give me the lift I need to get where I want to.....



del.icio.us

Staying alive....

I sparred today for the first time in two weeks. What a way to get reminded that I'm not keeping up at the pace I used to. I really was sucking wind today. A few warm-up rounds of no head gear boxing then five 90 second matches. I've been making it to two classes a week with just one additional run. It's not enough. I'm losing cardio. I'm going to try to get to three classes and two runs.

Am I the only one who has trouble keeping up at this pace?