Every morning, I would wake up, put on my shorts and walk out of my room, and right onto the beach. After a refreshing swim, I stretch and go for a gentle run along the beach.
I have been unable to run since I damaged my knees two years ago, after running in the LA Marathon. It saw the event as a spontaneous challenge, done true in Rolf style, without any preparation or training whatsoever. I loved the event and was happy with my under 5 hour finishing time; but have been really bummed about the damage caused.
On the beach in Palolem, I have been trying to ease myself back into running, by stretching carefully, and retraining myself to land on the front pads of my feet, rather than the hard impact of the heels.
Each day I have been able to run a little further before the knee pain begins, and after ten days, have been running 4 miles every morning.

The bay at Palolem is one mile across, and each day during my run, I would think about trying to swim the distance. View image
After an early night, I woke up at 7AM, when the water was calm, and the sun not yet too glaring, and ran to the other end of the bay, and set off to swim back, with the low sun behind me. The shortest route was not to follow the beach, but to go further out to sea and head directly across the half-circle's diameter. So in the middle, I was a half mile from any land, and dealt with the mind's trickery, imagining sharks and cramps and other dangers. Strangely, I saw several butterflies and dragonflies, and they were all flying towards land, seemingly from out to sea. Where are they coming from? Neither can land on sea, so how far have they come?
At one point during the 50-minute crossing, I was suddenly surrounded by a perfect circle of flying fish, whirling around me, and dipping in and out of the water without a splash. After 10 sceonds or so, they disappeared and I continued to a satisfying arrival at the other side, finding my body very heavy as I emerged from the water and walked along the beach past various people practising their early-morning yoga.View image
Breakfast tastes best after morning excercise!