Thursday, August 2, 2012

How we all need to find our thing for exercise

It's been interesting this vacation to see how my husband and I differ in what we prefer to do for exercise.  He loves to swim. In the swimming pool he swims laps- lots of them.  Like a mile of laps.  He says that it gives him a chance to concentrate on what he is doing. He can concentrate on micro-fixing parts of his form (he's following Total Immersion founded by Terry Laughlin).


Now here at the sea, he takes long swims along the outline of the salt water lake or up and down the coast.  The other day he did 65 minutes and about 1.5 miles. I have done some swimming.  I'm a good swimmer, but I cannot stand the monotony of swimming laps. Open water isn't much better.  It is good exeercise, and I know it, but I find it boring.  Mostly because I'm stuck with not seeing much and having just my thoughts to keep me going. It's too easy for me to say, "that's enough".


I like to walk and walk fast.  I don't change my pace going uphill.  I make it a challenge to see if I can keep the same pace.  I like that we have a walk of 1.5 miles to the little village.  About a half mile of  it is going up and down stone steps, two at a time and then a patch of sloping stone pathway.  On the way back we are carrying packs filled with juice, milk, wine and fruit, but I don't mind.  I go quickly and feel energized by the brisk walk.  We could ask someone from the house to drive us to the village to buy th supplies, but I would prefer to hoof it and volunteer to go each time and was a bit unhappy the one time I couldn't go.


Today we did that walk and then also walked to the boat dock and back and then hiked around the monastery on Mljet. We walked about 5 miles. I loved it.  I love seeing all the things outside. I love discovering the little things like how trees weave their roots around boulders, how they, over time, break down the rock and so on.  I love looking at the birds Nd the butterflies while I walk. Walking, for me, will be a form of exercise for me forever. I love it.  


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