So Sam posted earlier about her progress on meeting the 24 goals she had set for 2024. I took some ideas from that, but instead of going through my entire list, I’ll highlight some of my favourite things….

1. Swimming (you know it). 
   • Swimming outdoors once every month. I only missed April and September and I might miss December (although there’s still time!) Swimming outside in the cold months has been a hoot, and the highlight of my lake swimming was doing all 5 Great Lakes in one day. 
   • Swimming in 24 locations (beaches and pools): So very close….I swam in 17 beaches and 5 pools. Had I had time to find swimming pools in the cities I went to conferences, I would have done it!
   • And the last….swim 200 km this year. Oh so close! I’m up to 178.2 km. And that is my highest ever mileage (kilometerage?) over the years I’ve been tracking my swims, so I am very happy with this. My highlight was my epic birthday swim, 59 x 50 m. 
   • Overall, my swimming has felt strong and powerful all year, and I set a personal best in the 400 m free at Provincials in March 2024. I am very happy with how I’m feeling in the water. Hope it continues through 2025!

2. Strength training.

I had set a goal to lift twice a week and seriously build. While I didn’t quite do that, I did compare my lifting frequency to what I’d done from 2012-2016, when I was lifting regularly at the gym (things got a little weird after that). And it looks like I’m on track to do more workouts in 2024 than in each of those years. Now I aim to lift as much in my 60^th year as I did in my 50^th year. And I think that’s awesome.

3. Reading.

My goal was to read 2 books a month, and again, I came close…I’m on my 17^th book this year, with an 18^thone planned for over the holidays. This goal has been very rewarding, as it’s reduced my social media doomscrolling and has me reading all sorts of books: fiction, science, philosophy, biographies. I’d forgotten what joy reading brings to me, and how immersing myself in another world is one of my happiest places.

4. Fun stuff!

Got a tattoo! Coloured my hair purple (and will do another colour soon!) Had a 59^th birthday party with a cowboy theme! Cold plunges and saunas! And my husband and I are planning a trip to northern Labrador for our 60^th birthdays! 

I don’t think I’ll have a list of 25 things to do for 2025, but that’s OK. This list has instilled some good habits that I will carry into 2025 (reading, swimming, more fun stuff). Thanks for the challenge!

Have any readers here accomplished any goals they had set for the year (or came close or modified a goal and achieved it, or got inspired to do, or think about doing, one thing)?

I was going to first write about the criticisms of a medical system that relies on quantitative measures (Body Roundness Index, anyone?) for standards of health. Then I thought about the wellness industry because of an article I read in the New York Times (3 Days of Healing, Hope and ‘Snake Oil’ With the Wellness Elite, published Nov 8). Then maybe I thought I could write about the benefits of therapeutic massage, since I just got one that left me feeling a bit beaten up (all good now!).

These are all good topics, but maybe for another day. At this moment, I don’t want to write about topics that might bring a sense of negativity. Maybe it’s because of the results of the US election. Or because I’m going through a bit of a rough patch with a friendship. Or maybe because I’m juggling several things at work and my brain is busy enough. 

So maybe I’ll write about the things that are bringing me some peace and joy right now:

1. Swimming! (surprise, surprise) I am loving our practices, especially doing sets of longer distances (6 x 200, 3 x 400). I love getting into a rhythm, focussing on technique, feeling my body working with the water, feeling the water. I’m not pushing myself too hard this early in the season, so I am loving just focussing on technique. Here I am, on the pool deck after a good hard swim, holding my rainbow pull buoy that everyone loves!

2. Also swimming: this time, a plunge into the cool waters of Lake Erie at Port Stanley last weekend! A group from the swim team has been going to the lake once every month this year. I missed October, so it was good to join them again. The low autumn sun played beautifully on the water, and the “swim” (about 10 meters!) was invigorating, to say the least (water temperature was about 14C).

And we ended up at my friends’ hot tub afterwards, which of course lasted longer than the swim!

3. Lifting weights: Not doing as much as I’d like, but when I do it, I enjoy the feeling of strength in my muscles. So pleased to be lifting at the age of 59, as I started at 20, and am lifting heavier than I did back then! I am constantly inspired by  Alex Rotas and her call to “normalize grey hair and muscles” through her photography. 

4. The simplicity of quietly enjoying a good book and a good beer in my home. I’m very lucky to be living in a house that I own that is my sanctuary. No kids, no pets, no drama. Suits me well.

I hope all of you have been enjoying moving your bodies in whatever ways make you feel the same sort of peace and joy. You are all stronger than you know.

This past summer was a blast in terms of swimming. Outdoor swimming in the warmth and sunshine is glorious, and even if I’m doing the same workout as during the season, it doesn’t seem like it’s as much work. We had a great group swimming together this summer, and I also swam in lots of lakes. The most interesting body of water I swam in was something called the Oyster River Potholes on Vancouver Island. The water was COLD but beautiful, and the rock formations are why it’s called “Potholes”. Definitely the coolest (no pun intended) place I swam.

But the seasons change, and September is a transition month for my exercise routine. No more swimming in the mornings or at noon outdoors, or in the lakes. No more long, relaxing summer evenings to go for a walk or a bike ride along the river (stopping for ice cream or a beer along the way!). Time for a routine and to start training for another swim season, and to reconnect with my squat rack. The week of Sept 23 (first week of autumn!) was the first week for the routine of swimming Sunday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and doing weights Mondays and Wednesdays (or another day). I took it easy in the pool, opting to start with freestyle clinic to focus on technique. It’s crowded in the pool, so there’s less focus on mileage anyway. It’s good to ease into the swimming routine. After about 3 weeks off, it feels really good to be back in the pool. My body needs to swim. 

And the weights….there was a BIG break in the summer, so it was even more important to go easy. I have a “summer workout” routine, which is lighter weights and 2 sets instead of three. So I started with that. All good and very little muscle soreness, so the following week I increased the weights, keeping it at 2 sets. It feels good to feel my muscles working against resistance, and to feel a bit of soreness the next day. Since we’re focussing on technique in the pool and not distance or speed, now’s the perfect time to build on the weights. I’ve now been lifting for 2 weeks, and feel ready to bump it up to 3 sets. 

Getting back to doing weights is also good for my motivation to do physio on my shoulder. It feels tight in my left pectoralis and I have exercises, but I haven’t been doing them. Doing weights is also good for doing core strengthening exercises. I think my core strength needs work to help with my swimming. I’ve noticed that my backstroke especially is unbalanced since I don’t have that core strength to kick and roll. That backstroke pull the other day was hard and it felt like I was drowning, and I think it’s because my body is not aligned with the water. Core strengthening, which I have also not been doing in the summer, should help with that. 

Anybody else change up their workout routines with the seasons?

Let’s DO this!! 

“We’re messaging you because we think you’d be fun to do the “all the Great Lakes in one day” challenge and we’re confident we can stand being in a car with you for that long ”

Thus began a message from a friend asking me to be part of their adventure to swim all five Great Lakes in a day. 

Now apparently this is a thing! And my friends on the swim team wanted to do this challenge. And yes, I accepted. We had a planning session over dinner. We’d drive from London to Sault Ste. Marie, MI the day before (a 6 ½ hour drive). So we booked a hotel, planned which beaches to go to, and we were set! 

The Olympics swimming events were still happening so we streamed it all during the trip, along with a bunch of other sports we only watch every 4 years….We also compiled a Great Lakes playlist! Here are some of the songs:

1. Lake Superior: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot
2. Lake Michigan: Lake Michigan, Rogue Wave
3. Lake Huron: any song by Lord Huron
4. Lake Ontario: Hasn’t Hit Me Yet, Blue Rodeo
5. Lake Erie: Lake Erie, Wild Pink. Also Erie Canal, Bruce Springsteen

It was a wild and fun road trip with my swimming friends. Maybe next time (!) I’d choose some nicer beaches that we could actually swim in (the beach at Lake Superior was too shallow, Lakes Michigan and Huron beaches were too rocky, Lake Ontario was just gross and it was too dark to swim in Lake Erie). But it was tons of fun. Enjoy my slideshow! And check out my reel: https://www.facebook.com/reel/284661034217761

So last fall when I was sick with a monster (non-Covid) respiratory infection, I listened to a lot of music and podcasts. As I was flipping through Spotify’s podcast offerings, one popped out at me: Julia Louis-Dreyfus (of Seinfeld and Veep fame) hosted one called Wiser Than Me. In this series, she interviews women who are in their 70s and 80s because she wanted to delve into the wisdom of older women, and hear their stories, which are often ignored by our present society. And her first podcast was with Jane Fonda. 

Julia Interviews Jane Fonda

I have memories of the early 1980s and her workouts. I started enrolling in aerobics classes and bought those bodysuits and leggings and leg warmers (the whole nine yards!). 

Jane Fonda Workout

While these home videos were meant to fuel the costs of her political activism, they revolutionized and normalized hard exercise for women. They allowed women to own being sweaty and muscular. They allowed women to exercise at their own leisure in the home instead of going to a grimy, dusty gym from which women were largely excluded. Women could take charge of their own bodies and define strength and fitness for themselves. It was empowering. (yes, there are critiques and analyses of this idea).

I don’t know if it’s true, but I have a feeling that Jane Fonda paved the way for more inclusive gym spaces with lighter weights, machines and well-lit spaces that made women (and most men) feel safe. I, for one, remember those old university gyms with one or two Universal weight machines, some heavy free weights and a couple of exercise bikes. I got curious about gyms and weights, and starting lifting weights in 1985 (2^nd year university). I dropped the aerobics but haven’t stopped lifting weights. And I haven’t stopped challenging traditional notions of what a woman’s body ought to look like. 

So all of these memories were triggered by listening to this podcast. But another thing Jane Fonda talked about was writing a “life review”. As an actor, she thinks of life as being divided into acts. And she thinks that the human lifespan can be reasonably expected to last 90 years if one is relatively healthy (ie no chronic diseases). So Act I is 0-29, Act II is 30-59, and Act III is 60-90. She goes on to recommend that women research themselves starting at age 59 and embark on the process of writing a life review by age 60.

Well. I just turned 59! So I thought I would begin the process. I’ve downloaded a template that will get me started on thinking and writing about prominent life events, and reflecting on my memories and the impact they’ve had on my life. And I’ve actually written down a couple of things. I’m looking forward to this experience. 

Have any of you written, or considered writing, a life review? I’d love to hear of your experiences if you have.

July is my birthday month. That’s right….it falls right smack-dab in the middle of the month (16^th), so why not celebrate for the entire month? 

I’ve always thought of July as the Saturday of the summer. June is Friday, and August is the dreaded Sunday….it starts out great, but towards the end of the month, September looms. So July really is the best month of summer!

What have I done to celebrate so far? The first 9 days was easy, we were on vacation on Vancouver Island. I LOVE Vancouver Island. We drove up the eastern side, from the Crofton ferry terminal up to Campbell River. All along the way, we stopped at a number of local breweries and sampled some excellent beer! 

Then we drove inland to Strathcona Provincial Park. This is one spectacular park, dotted with lakes that are surrounded by snow-capped mountains and big, big trees. There’s something about being surrounded by big big (yes, I have to say it twice!) trees that fills me with a sense of respect. We could all take lessons from trees….connect with the earth, let the breeze move your branches and leaves, and just chill for a few hundred years. That sounds good to me!

And the mountains are humbling. They’ve seen BILLIONS of years. If we’re lucky, we are just random arrangements of atoms that last for about 90 years. The realization of one’s insignificance can be incredibly liberating.

So staying in a stunning cabin in this beautiful park, cooking great food, drinking great beer, going on day hikes and returning for a swim in the VERY COLD (!) mountain lake….that’s an amazing way to celebrate my birthday month.

And then going to the beautiful city of Victoria, experiencing a spa boat (more cold plunges, saunas, hot tubs), more good beer, cocktails and ending with the Pride Parade and a concert by my favourite cowboy singer, Orville Peck! 

And THAT was a GREAT start to my birthday month! Next up….my birthday swim! 59 X 50 m! Looking forward to it! And then celebrating my birthday with friends in my favourite pub.

Oh, one more thing….I got my hair coloured PURPLE! Just because! 

Happy Birthday to all the Julys here! Does anyone else love their birthday and celebrates it for longer than just the day?

Last week my husband and I were in Arizona visiting friends, and part of the trip was going to the Grand Canyon. We are (were?*) both avid hikers; we have hiked up to the Burgess Shale, and through Yoho National Park in the Rockies, in Strathcona National Park on Vancouver Island (saw cougar and bear tracks!!), Bryce and Zion National Parks in southern Utah, Keoneheʻeheʻe Trail into the crater of Haleakalā in Hawaii, and lots of other spectacular places. Hiking into mountains and canyons brings an up close and personal experience, and in some cases, the experience borders on epiphanic. That usually happens when I’m alone, surrounded only by the vastness of the landscape, and a silence broken only by the sound of the wind or the occasional bird call. 

However, this was the Grand Canyon, which is on EVERYONE’S bucket list. There is a paved path along the South Rim which makes the majestic views of the canyon accessible to everyone. And at times it seemed that everyone in the US was there, along with peoples of the world. We heard French, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Tamil and lots of other languages we didn’t recognize. The path was shoulder-to-shoulder people. And that was OK, but we wanted a more “up close and personal” experience (see above). So the next day, we chose one of several hiking trails, called Bright Angel Trail, that would take us down into the canyon (not to the floor, but a fair ways down). We estimated the round trip would take about 3-ish hours; they did say that the way up would take twice as much time as the way down, so we planned to hike down for about an hour. 

As for an “up close and personal” experience, we did get that…..with PEOPLE. So many people! There was so much foot traffic on this trail, which really surprised us. And this is where the hiking etiquette comes in. It’s generally (so we thought) known that hikers going uphill get the right of way. So if someone is coming up and you’re going down, you step aside and make way for them. Which is what we did. 

But not everyone knew about/paid attention to this rule, so I was observing what kinds of people barrelled past us as we were going back up. Young people travelling in groups. Men hiking alone or with a small group. I forgave them if they were not speaking English, because people from other countries may not know about this etiquette. But many of them were speaking English with American accents. Older people and women almost always gave us the right of way, with encouraging smiles and words. I used my hiking poles to great effect, taking up all the space. And going SLOWLY because it was UP.

Ah well….I hope everyone enjoyed their experiences. We did, and met some nice people along the way. Although for our next hike in spectacular scenery, we may choose something a bit quieter…..

* we have not done overnight backcountry hiking for several years!

Image of the Grand Canyon, showing layers of rock in different colours.

The Swim Ontario Masters Championships were held this past weekend (Apr 19^th-21^st). I didn’t participate in this meet, but have been happily reading reports from members of my team as well as from others. And the overwhelming consensus was that the highlight of the meet was 100-year-old Kalis Rasmussen swimming in the 100-104 age group and setting world records in the 100 m IM (!), and the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. 

The 100 IM (Individual Medley) consists of 25 m of all four strokes, in the order of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. That means this 100-year-old woman swam 25 m of butterfly. Let me state that again: this 100-year-old woman swam 25 m of butterfly! OMG. I once swam 25 fly and it was exhausting! 

She also swam the 50 breast, but did NOT set a world record. You’d think just showing up and completing the event would be enough. But this age group is COMPETITIVE. That’s right….there’s ANOTHER 100-year-old woman, Betty Brussel from BC, who owns the record for the 50 breast. Those two should have a match race! 

My teammates said that all 500 swimmers at the meet were on their feet and cheering for Kalis, and some were in tears, as she completed her events. And that’s not surprising. It’s always the oldies, 80 and above, who get the loudest cheers at Masters meets. We love them for showing up, and for showing us what is possible. 

I remember attending a Nationals meet in Winnipeg in 2009. The star of that meet was 101-year-old Jaring Timmerman. They held an exhibition relay with the Canadian men’s Olympic team, and he swam the anchor leg, with the entire arena on its feet! He didn’t stop there….Masters Swimming had to create a new age group, 105-109, for him as he continued to compete! 

This rare group of athletes are re-defining what it means to be a life-long swimmer. They really ARE swimming (and training!) into deep old age. 

We are stronger than we know.

I had previously written about Masters athletics as seen through the camera of Alex Rotas Photography. What about my personal experience with Masters swimming? The training, the competitions, the racing? 

THE TRAINING

What IS training? Well, you have to push yourself physically and mentally to build up cardiovascular capacity and speed. Early in the season, the emphasis is on building cardiovascular capacity by focusing on mileage. I moved up a lane with swimmers faster than me and distances longer (about 2200-2400 m per 1 hour workout). The workouts asked for speedy intervals: 100 m on 2:15, 50 m on 1:10 (meaning you have that amount of time to swim and rest). I aimed to swim 100 in 1:45 (which meant 30 s rest) and 50 m in 50 s (20 s rest). When they’re repeated in the main set (4 x 100 on 2:15, 6 x 50 on 1:10), it’s hard! It feels like you’re swimming through mud and you’re breathing hard at the wall. By the end of the set, you’re seeing stars. But that’s how you train. And technique is so important….you can swim faster without swimming faster by having excellent technique. No matter how tired you are, you’ve got to maintain technique. And there is support and camaraderie during the workout (c’mon, you got this! Just there and back two more times!). High fives and affirmations after the workout, along with the swim itself, brings a shared sense of accomplishment and joy. 

About a month before competition, the training starts to emphasize speed, so there’s faster intervals with extensive warm ups and cool downs. Our coach held clinics on starts, turns and relay takeovers. It gets so that you go on autopilot when you dive into the water, getting into the dolphin kick, breaking out with quick strokes and NO BREATHING (swimming is the only sport where the coach yells at you for breathing) and then settling into the stroke. 

THE MEET

The Masters Swim Ontario Championships (which we call Provincials) was held at the beautiful Pan Am Games pool in Markham, ON. There were about 30 teams from Ontario (and other provinces) and the venerable team from the Canadian Forces (stacked with young, strapping, fast swimmers).  Our team, the London Silver Dolphins, consisted of 14 swimmers. Masters swimming is done by age group; your age is calculated as of Dec 31, 2024, so I was competing as a 59-year-old in the 55-59 age group. One of the pleasures of Masters athletics is “ageing up” into the next age category where you’ll be the youngest! So here I was, the oldest in my age group, at a long course meet, at my first meet in 8 years. Talk about ageing up…from 51 to 59!

The nice thing about Masters swimming is that you swim with people with similar times (seed times), not necessarily with people in your age group. So I’d be swimming with a 40-year-old to the right of me and a 71-year-old to my left, if we all had entered similar times for that particular event. 

Before every event, every swimmer gets butterflies, and the urge to pee (the nervous pee!). But you have to work through it. I did a little meditation with deep breathing before my heat. One thing our coach told us that stuck with me is to “trust your training”. That means have confidence in your pace, your stroke, your starts and turns, your breakouts and finishes. You KNOW how to do this. Don’t panic. Just swim. Fast!

THE RACE

You stand beside the starting block. One whistle from the starting official and you get up on the block. “Swimmers, take your mark”… you bend over into your ready position. Sink into your legs, they are the power for your dive into the water.

BEEP

You are briefly airborne, then fwooom into the water. The silence, the cold water. Dolphin kick, kick, kick Breakout stroke, stroke, stroke (NO BREATHING). Settle into your race pace. As you approach the final length of your race, build into your maximum pace. During that final flip turn, your lungs feel like they will burst. That final length is ALL OUT. All you hear is your hard breathing. All you feel is fire in your legs and arms. That last 15 m, you are seeing stars. WHERE’S THE WALL? PULL, REACH, touch. You’re done! Now you can hear your teammates cheering!

And you’re an absolute wreck. “Swimmers, clear the pool”.  You have to hoist yourself out of the water and head to the cooldown lane. Easy swim until your breathing settles down and the burning feeling in your legs and arms subsides. 

Here were my events and times:

50m freestyle: 42.34 s

100m free: 1:35.39

200m free: 3:40.39

400m free: 7:43.62  *Personal Best for long course! And a Bronze medal in my age group!!

And two relays: 4×100 free (women’s) and 4×100 free (mixed). 

The 400 free was my best race. I felt relaxed, settled into a fast and easy pace, and swam negative splits (each 50m was faster) throughout. Those fast intervals of 50s on 1:10 in training really helped! At first, I thought I was going too fast, but I remembered to “trust my training”. And it felt great. I had enough in the tank to sprint the last 15 m. And it was a personal best by 10 seconds!! 

The 200 free was (and always will be) my WORST race! It’s a tough race, holding speed for 200 m. During the last 10 m, I felt like I was swimming through muck and mire. Why wasn’t the wall getting any closer??? It’s the one race I will always swim, as a perpetual challenge. 

The placing within your age group determines the number of points you earn for your team. The team with the most points wins the meet! So it’s about the team, not the individual. And our team placed 3rd overall! Everyone had at least one Top 3 finish in their age group. We were awesome!

But most of all, I love the camaraderie of our team. Everyone is so supportive, cheering our teammates on, recording their split times, hanging out and chatting and examining the heat sheets during the lunch break, sharing snacks…it’s what Masters swimming is all about. We all find joy in the demanding regimens of training and competition, and in the friendships we make along the way. And we all discover that we are stronger than we know!

Nationals are next, in May!! Can’t wait!!