I awoke this morning stiff as a board. Everything hurt when I tried to get out of bed, especially shoulders and hamstrings.. The big swim on Sunday and then the hit out on Monday has left everything aching and I haven’t even been doing my rehab exercises. It was another beautiful day, Sun coming up as I walked to Manly at 6am and the ocean was gentle and glassy. Not a breath of wind.

The swim to Shelly was slow. I had nothing in the tank. But Peter Maccormick caught me on the return journey and everything fell apart. I decided to try and keep up with him as he is bent out of shape because I beat him on the weekend at Palm Beach. We went stroke for stroke right across the bay to the point, with me verging on a massive coronary. I was knackered. Then someone grabbed my leg. It was bouncing Bob Johnson who said,

“Wanna do a double? Ross and me are going back.”

“Naa. I’m too stuffed,” I said it with a lot of conviction as I was tired. Marg and Denise also declined. Bob and Ross Boakes swam slowly away. I watched them go, floating around in the water. I got a pang of guilt and the little voice in my head wouldn’t accept that.

“Don’t be a sook. It’s a beautiful day. Swim back with your mates.”

So I found myself swimming once more to Shelly, following Bob and Ross. I actually arrived before they did. They got a shock to see me at Shelly as they thought I wasn’t coming. It wasn’t so bad and yes it was a delightful day. The water was alive with fish and very clean.

I didn’t feel like it at lunchtime but it was Wednesday and Belinda – She who Must be Obeyed – was back from her wedding and honeymoon. It was a gym day. I felt pretty guilty as I’d done nothing in the fortnight she’d been away, except rack up endless kilometres in the ocean. I didn’t have the heart to tell her. Thankfully she forgot to ask if I’d been doing my exercises.

I wondered what I would call her now she was married?

“Mrs Harrington,” apparently. She had enjoyed the Borneo wedding and we spent some of the session looking at wedding photos. Hey, not my favourite pastime, but it’s better than standing one-legged on a Bosu ball. Well, maybe not.

We did a lot of the usual stuff but I passed on Kettlebell dead lifts as it hurt my back last time. The routine was
• Stepping up and down off the big box
• Squats
• Walking lunges
• Jumping squats with the hip twist
• One legged deadlifts
• Jumping off the big box

I was so stiff and tired that we finished the session doing stretching exercises for skiing which are shown below. I told her about my reservations about skiing. We only have one session left before I go. She said my leg is strong enough. I asked should I have the ski bindings on the broken leg lighter then on the other. The risk here is that the ski comes off when you don’t expect it and you go straight into a tree. Having them too loose is almost as bad as having them too tight. She said to have them both even as both legs are equally strong. She is very positive and suggests I have to be positive too! That’s what getting married does to you.