Karen writes: Maturity catching up...in some ways

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I am…ahem…a mature athlete.  In many respects my body is in better shape than it has ever been, better than when I was much younger and skinnier, and certainly it works and feels better when working than when I was a teenage runner back in the days when modern concepts of sports hydration and nutrition hadn’t been invented.   I like my arms again after years of covering them up, I enjoy my hard working legs, I have hopes for ongoing improvement in various other bits as the strength training continues to slowly make changes, and I love being able to burst into activity…just because I want to.    Like when smallest daughter was learning to cycle, I could run beside her without a thought, or older daughter is currently training for a weetbix triathlon, she might be faster, but I can keep going when she runs out of puff.

Sometimes things remind you that you aren’t a youngster any more though, that time thing shifts the goal posts in subtle but nonetheless important ways.  For example I noticed while trying to read the labels on the unfamiliar energy gel packets down at Taupo that I was struggling a bit. Imagine if you will, me hanging grimly on to the bike handlebars with one hand, sunglasses gripped in my teeth, holding the packet closer then further away from my eyes with the other hand, squinting trying to find the word “caffeine”, shutting one eye then the other, all while still pedaling.  I was sure at the time it was...the light...moving about too much...the quality of the printing.   Hmmm, I also noticed that Taupo had been mass producing rather indistinct road-signs!  Spectacles anyone?

And the brain, research says (I love that short but all-powerful statement), RESEARCH SAYS that brains work better with exercise, I should be brilliant...in reality, I hate to think what my brain would be like if I wasn’t exercising!  The capacity to be amused by small things hasn't changed with theoretical maturity however, I took this photo yesterday morning at the local school, impressed with this tree and its unusual fruit.

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