Fit for days out: Our day at the Olympics 2012

A theme running through this blog is the idea of Life as play, where you use opportunities for play to keep you healthy, so you bake a healthy lifestyle into your everyday routine.. This post comes from notes I made when I took my family to visit the 2012 London Olympics.

I keep noticing throughout life that the really fun stuff takes a lot out of you. That’s great, but it stands to reason that the fitter you are, the more fun you can have without breaking. To put this another way, having fun will take less out of you, leaving you less tired than when you were less fit.

Either way, it is worth getting fit so you can have more fun. I don’t hear many people talking about things this way, so I thought I would share.

We are just coming home from the Olympics, and I am writing this on the train. We had a fantastic time, and boy, am I glad I am fit. I have built up the ability to play five sets of tennis when needed, and this regular training investment made the day so much easier.

The challenge: Days out can be hard work

What you forget about these days out is the amount of walking, carrying, climbing and general movement you do. You use your body a lot, and even waiting around is tiring. So, the day out is always physically, mentally and emotionally draining. You have a great time but will be exhausted by the end.

I like sports because they train you in all these aspects. Movement, in general, also helps. I’ll tell you how tiring the day was and then how being active helped.

Getting there

We had tickets to see the diving at Stratford Olympic Park, which sounds simple enough. You would think that we could just hop on a train and go watch the diving. Of course, that wasn’t the case. It never is, particularly when you visit London. Here is the list of things we had to do to get there:

To watch the diving we:

• parked the car near Milton Keynes train station
• walked to the station 
• walked to the platform 
• almost had to stand on the train. 
• Walked 10 minutes from Euston to Kings Cross. 
• I walked to board the Javelin train to Stratford. 
• I walked across the park for 50 minutes, getting free water and food and finding the park live event to pass the time waiting for the diving. 
• Walk 15 mins to the Olympic shop.
• 40 minutes standing in a long queue
• We walked around the shop for 1 hour
• 30 minutes walking to diving
• We walked up 15 flights of stairs
• We walked to our seats, where it was very hot.

You probably think I’m being a bit over the top. I just wanted to show you how many things we had to do that were way beyond what we do on an average day. When you list the amount of walking and standing, you see just how much more effort this is if you are a normal office walker who drives to the office.

I can easily go days without walking for more than 5 minutes all day. Parking the car up and walking a short way to work, then walking around work a little is about all we do. Like most people who don’t use public transport.

Seeing this list makes you realise how much effort this day out is compared to your normal day. It gives you a clear idea of the training you need to put in to make this feel easier. You have to be careful to include regular movement to get the full benefit that movement provides.

To cap it off, we were very tired for the next couple of days because it was so intense. This highlights the need to prepare for big days out and build walking and standing into your daily routine to prepare you for action when needed.

You must also plan resting and recovery into your plan for the days prior and afterwards. At first this seems over the top, but if you want to avoid overworking yourself from doing too much, planning in recovery will ensure your life continues and you are quickly ready for your next adventure.

Enjoying the diving

We had to watch the diving

The journey home

After all this, and then get home. Here is the list of what we had to do:

• I used binoculars, but this tired my eyes out. My brain was getting tired from the day and from trying to watch even though the diving only lasted one hour. 
• walk back down the stairs to the exit. Our seats were quite high up.
• Walk to find water. 
• 15-minute walk out of the aquatic park
• 30 minute walk to Stratford station
• Train to St Pancras.
• Walk to Euston 15 mins
• walk to train 5 mins. Walk
• 10-minute walk up the platform and over to the car. 
• Drive home.

We arrive home bloody knackered. I am 70 kgs (About 12 stone), and I couldn’t help but wonder how that would feel for someone heavier, like 100 kg.

We loved every minute of it and would happily do it again, but it goes to show that doing fun things is a lot of work. The story is similar no matter what fun you do. A trip to the Good Food show is just as tiring, as is visiting a children’s play park with our son. So, preparing for it in your daily life makes sense.

How I prepare

That is why playing tennis during lunch is so useful to me. I play with quite a competitive group, so I get quite a workout, which has the added benefit of preparing me for my weekend adventures.

Sometimes, we meet outside work and have a proper five-set match. More intense matches like this are a lot of fun but also something you need to prepare for.  

Tennis tests your movement in all sorts of ways, and longer matches really develop your ability to sustain effort and concentration over time. All the running, stopping, turning, jumping, and everything else over several hours while having limited food and water and experiencing sun, rain, or whatever is great preparation for fun days out.

Playing tennis helps me prepare for days out because, to my body, it’s the same challenge. It doesn’t know the difference between walking across London or across the tennis court, all it knows is that:

• it may not get enough water for several hours,
• then binge on salty, dehydrating food
• and do a lot of walking. 
• Oh, and of course, have lots of drinks that aren’t very hydrating, like coke or milkshakes.

That’s part of a fun day out, isn’t it? It’s not so much fun if you avoid the foods you are not supposed to eat.

I assume this sounds familiar to you because it’s pretty much the standard food for a day out. The point is that I have trained my body to handle the rigours of a day out through playing sport.

I recovered faster

The benefit was that I wasn’t as tired the day after we saw the diving for two reasons.

1. It didn’t take as much out of me as it did everyone else and
2. I recover faster because sports teach your body to replace what has been lost and fix what has been broken.

Boy, it helps to be fit!!

So you’ve heard my way to make busy days easier to handle. How do you find your fitness helps when you have fun?

So, how do you find days out like this? Are they a breeze, or do they leave you needing a day off?