That’s thanks to Masters Games where local, national and international meets are held for age groups.
I am in it for swimming for the past three years. Participation is quite satisfying and medals sweet rewards.
Here are three golds and a silver in yesterday’s swimming competition.
And then, I was an athlete and Masters Athletics is taking place on December 11 and 12 and I am registered for that too.
You don’t have to retire from sports.
STRENGTHEN THE SWIMMING ARM
Land swimming without the benefit of water buoyancy has resulted in a minor (luckily) tear in the shoulder structure.
Amazon extended this help in the recovery and strengthening process.
Hoping to hit the water, trained on these devices, for gaining a second or so.
Today’s world water day.
I have a great affinity to water. The river in the picture above is the one flowing around our house in Thidanad, Kerala where I grew up. A good part of my childhood was in that river.
The sprawling water body is the backwaters of Kochi and the view from our balcony I am sitting now and writing this.
And swimming is my profession now and the pool shown is in Thrissur where I managed to win gold medals in the recent Kerala state masters meet.
I may also mention that our place in Bangalore is overlooking the water storage of the water supply company there.
I am happy to celebrate the world water day today.
I have the Masters Swimming State Meet coming up day after, the March 13, 2021.
Along with the preparations, my wife decided that I should have a proper attire while at the swimming complex.
Since Amazon couldn’t come up with anything to her satisfaction, she bought some paint and painted my T-Shirt with the appropriate logo.
This certainly is a beautiful gesture and a tremendous morale booster for the competition.
It’s in participating, but a few medals would be nice.
We drove back to Kochi from Bangalore yesterday after 3 weeks of stay there.
In fact it was the Covid breakout in March 2020 that created the idea of making Kochi and Bangalore alternate as home.
The lockdown stay of 10 months started when we were stuck in Bangalore without a vehicle as we flew down that time for a short stay.
But this time we took our car and thus could do two memorable drive in holidays to Hampi and Yelagiri. That included a most memorable stay at ultra luxurious resort Evolve Back in Humpi. (please see my blog ‘EVOLVE BACK HUMPI! A SUPER RESORT AND A GENTLE HOLIDAY’.)
Driving is a pleasure, we have good roads now, but the experience is increasingly getting not very pleasurable.
Regionalism, parochialism, dislike-bordering hatred are being encouraged. The pandemic is used as a political weapon to say ‘we’re good and they’re bad’.
Vehicle registered in another state needs to give so many explanations and sort of gets singled out for rules compliance. Rules set before the roads were made super. For example I was to give fine for over speeding on an elevated road where everyone was at 120 kms/hr while the limit is set at 60. You just can’t drive on 60 without getting blown out from vehicles behind.
Happy to be back to see these water birds landing for the team fishing in the waterfront as unique and inspiring morning sight.
But water again would take me back to Bangalore as the beautiful Jayanagar new 50 meters pool is getting opened on March 15.
Imagine walking across for swimming training in Olympic size swimming pool, every day. Total bliss.
All these activities in one day which separately burned 1329 calories! Perhaps it’s possible only in a lockdown situation.
There are clear objectives, to come out intact. Competitive swimming to continue and at least the swimming muscles should be worked out.
The ambition of wearing a six pack should be kept alive. Strength Training included but without weights.
Apple Watch got quite confused with swimming. But it insisted on using the water eject button after the session.
So far so good. The show must go on!
I learn most from my young friends and it’s one of them, a Harvard trained medical research student, who introduced to me how the brain exercise compliment overall fitness.
I have been contemplating on regulating my workout schedule to stay fit, train for the next level in swimming competition and become a worthy fitness consultant, when the new dimension comes into attention. Exercise the brain by thinking hard.
While the planned workout schedule of yoga, swimming and weights could border extreme workout at my age, I am a novice when it comes to challenging the brain.
That’s I avoid crossword puzzles, complex maths, chess, riddles and even scrabble. The same young friend introduced ‘Dopamine’ to me sometime back and I let it pass thinking it’s complex.
My thought process and thus any brain challenge is like that of an idiot. Now I have to think how to change it. And it’s complex and hard. Perhaps that’s just the beginning of challenging the brain.
I can feel the brain is in attention and what’s required, perhaps, is to pursue the thinking process though difficult and very hard.
Yes, think hard!
Today I am completing one year in Intermittent Fasting. I started it on 19, January 2019 when my friend from Kuwait asked my opinion about it, citing very positive changes to her friend who was on the fasting.
I am mostly devoted and strict with the schedule ever since.
It has changed my life in a very positive way. Right now I am preparing for a national level swimming competition in February. I am looking at developing my dream six packs.
I am also much more positive in life. I am even looking for movie acting roles after a chance appearance in a Malayalam movie, acting as the president of India. I even think positively to a classmate’s comment that I could be the lucky Mascot for the hugely successful movie.
Autophagy is my target in Intermittent Fasting and as such I supplement fasting with some High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) which alone could usher in autophagy. For this I do intense sets of swimming with Interval rests.
I am slowly getting into a swimmers body shape which comes with six packs.
I feel and perhaps look much younger to my actual age.
The only problem to mention is the ‘Dawn’s Phenomenon’ I seem to have developed. That’s my blood glucose reading of 85 in the early morning hours, going up to like 130 as I progress into fasting. Some say Dawn’s is okay, but I need to get out of it.
I run a whatsapp broadcast group on Intermittent Fasting. This is a broadcast group and privacy and phone numbers are kept confidential.
I am happy to have more interested members and the benefits of sharing experiences and opinions in the group are highly beneficial.
I must also add that I lost 8 kgs in the program, while eating well during the eating window. This is in spite of the muscles I have built on.
If interested, send a message to my whatsapp number +91 9400056031. I will add you to the group, which I am sure you will enjoy and benefit.
I will have the satisfaction of sharing my wellness experience to the group members and by being the mentor to the group.
The learnings from group members are priceless.
Happy IF anniversary to me!
Having qualified to compete in the National Masters Swimming Meet, I have been working on the technique and for the first time under coaches.
The immediate target is the National Masters Games at Vadodara, Gujarat. But I am a dreamer and I am doing what dreamers do usually.
The next step is the World Masters Games in Kansai, Japan in 2021.
That’s it, the eyes are on participating in the World Games and for that I have to do well in the National level.
Going for a disciplined training and hope the body will cooperate to get through the rigour.
That’s two gold medals and two silver medals in the Kerala Masters Swimming Competition in Tiruvandapuram.
It’s in my age group which actually makes it more satisfying.
The two golds are in the 50 and 100 meters breaststroke. But the two silvers are also quite satisfying as I came behind my college days pal, swimming champion and coach.
Something to be absolutely happy about. And the news is that I might have qualified for the national masters swimming competition in Vadodara in the state of Gujarat.
That’s something to work for.
Watch this space.
Kurian 