Not what it looks like I swear

I have to admit that I am a bit of a walking cliche today. Here we are on the 3rd of January and I have just been to the gym. Peak 'I am going back to the gym and get fit' New Years resolution time.

Now, me going back to the gym isn't really a New Year's resolution, but I have to admit the timing does appear questionable to the casual observer. Actually, going back to the gym as been on my radar since Dr Stobie gave me permission to do a bit more exercise, it is just with Christmas etc I couldn't really get consistent access to the gym, to I decided to postpone my start. Now the Christmas etc is behind us I thought it was time to make a start.

Why the gym?

Well I am quite a big believer in the benefits of strength work and so I have always had it as part of my routine. For years my strength work was all functionally focused, lower body and core mainly. Really whatever was necessary to stop me getting injured. In the last few years I started introducing a bit of strength and gym work to try and help increase power and aid improvements in running . I am not enough of a sports scientist to know the ins and out of why, but a lot of smart people that I trust at Front Runner tell me that a well designed weights program can help with endurance sports, really that is enough for me.

Although, this most recent foray into the gym isn't so much driven by endurance sport, but rather by paddling. Paddling is something of a power sport and so it can benefit from a good strength program, hence why I made a start at the gym today. Having not been to the gym for quite a few months I suspect I am really going to regret it tomorrow.

The other thing I did today was help coach down the Red Mist Swim Smooth session down at Claremont Pool. For something a bit different today we had a surprise visitor to the squad, Mr Paul Newsome himself. Paul has been away on holiday, but he got back early this week and has been planning a week off to relax at home. However, this morning his jet lag decided that he didn't need to sleep and so instead he thought he might as well come down to the pool for a swim. I have to say it was a bit unnerving coaching a Swim Smooth session which contained my Swim Smooth himself, but all up it went fine, with only one minor mistake from Sal and myself. It is good to have Paul back though, care taking the squad is one thing, but really the Perth squad is built around Paul and so everyone is happy when he returns. Looking forward to having him back on the pool deck in the near future.