12th Day of Christmas – 5th of Janathon #12DCP

It’s over for another year. This is the last of the 12 days of Christmas. Thank you for joining in. I know it’s been a low-key affair this year, no fabulous dresses or extravagant food, no quiz questions and importantly no legs! Talking of legs, where are yours right now? If you close your eyes could you touch your knee cap without missing? The last stage on our sensory journey is:

Kinesthesia

The sense of knowing where one body part is in relation to another – without looking, can you type at your keyboard for example – if not try this little bit of fun Dance Mat.

So for now the most complicated bit of leaving the party, a social kiss goodbye, it’s all to do with positioning of those zygomatic bones but one, two, three pecks on the cheek, right or left first or just kiss the palm and blow – which to do?

I’ll give everyone until the end of Saturday to complete their comments and then run the draw – if you are not sure what this is about go back to day one.

Hugs and Happy New Year to you all

Janathon

Today is a non run day, so I decided to go for a swim.  800m mix of breast, crawl and back stroke; a gentle re-entry before swimfit classes restart next week. I have signed up to do the latest Framlingham Sports and Fitness Centre challenge and am swimming for China in the Olympic challenge. Launched today they already have 16 people signed up in the first hour but just me and the team leader swimming for China so far. The aim is for the team to hit 15,000m by the end of the month.

The Spotify playlist for today is a collaborative list, please add your songs to go with the kinesthesia theme, body parts, positioning, songs to test your body position awareness.  the list is HERE

Swimming the Channel – Aspire, #f450 the next challenge…

When I finished the Great East Swim I knew I wanted to make sure I carried on exercising, but wasn’t sure what to do next. I am now a regular at the gym, pool and Fritton Lake and cycle to work.  However, come the Autumn the lake will no longer be possible and heavy weather can reduce the cycling days. It seems impossible that could be the case, as it is currently blisteringly hot here.  However, living on the edge of a prairie means winds that whip up and make the cycling commute very hard work.

When I asked blog readers and twitter friends for suggestions several were put forward, including swim the Channel. Then a fellow Fritton lake swimmer and member of Sport Suffolk sent me a link to the Aspire Channel Swim.  The basic idea is to swim the 22 miles that equate to a Channel swim, over 12 weeks in your local pool.  You raise money for Aspire, a charity which works with people who have spinal cord injuries. They send you a kit in super quick time, which includes a hat and fund-raising pack.  Then between 13th September and 5th December you plough up and down your local pool.  For me this will equate to 148 lengths a week.

This is the challenge for me; it will keep me swimming at a decent rate, during a time when outdoor activities become more difficult.  It will set me up ready for training for next year’s Great East Swim and I have another challenge that I might add next summer; more later if I decide to commit.  The charity is certainly one I support and will be my Christmas Charity this year.  I have set up a JustGiving page here if you are interested in donating.

Anyone else up for it?  If you want some music to whet your appetite – try this playlist, which I have used before