Taking care of Exercise

It has been a whole week of Olympics in Sochi and I try not to let that interrupt my weekly exercises. How has it been with you? Have you watched the games and have you kept up with your normal rhythm?

A good start to Skeleton

Today I was taking my daily walk in the morning. This time around the Töölönlahti bay.  First up the Linnanmäki hill and then again down the  hill towards Eläintarha park. There I noticed some children with their sledges and my thoughts jumped to the House of Horrors in the neighboring  amusement park and  “Skeleton”, the Master of the House of Horrors. Taking a few more steps down the here and there icy path my brain combined the children’s sledges to the sport I had watched on TV yesterday: Yes: “Skeleton”. I don’t mean the system that provides the support to my living body but I was thinking about this strange looking Olympic sport discipline where sports men and women will accelerate their sledges down an icy chute.  They are dressed in shiny outfits of fabrics with plastic touch as they rush down with their heads leading the way and their noses nearly touching the fast by passing icy surface. The speed of their sledges reaching up to 135 km per hour they seem to be risking their lives for their sport of choice. And the strange name “Skeleton”?  How did it get there? I remember the sport was named after the bony appearance of the sledge they use.

Then I needed to take a crosswalk to get to the other side of the street and I had to concentrate on the traffic. I walked on and passed the Opera House and kept on going in direction of Finlandia Hall. Quite a lot of people did the same. They were doing the circle around the bay, making a walking distance of about 3 kilometres.  I could not avoid overhearing the discussion as a couple passed me. They were praising the amazing styles and the vocabulary of the snowborders they had watched: “Goofy foot”, “clean air”, “nose grab” and “rail slide”. I smiled and silently accompanied their opinions: Really relaxed sportiness and refreshing language.

Soon I returned home. Walking felt good. It must be a good exercise discipline for me. I admire the people, the sportsmen and women in the Olympics practising their fancy sports and even enjoy watching them in the Games. But I don’t envy them. How about you? What do you think of all this? Have you got a passion to exercise more or are you happy with what you are doing to keep yourself fit?