By Jeff Commings<\/p>\n
TUCSON, Arizona, December 25. IF you are swimming on Christmas Day, it’s best not to grumble about it. Michael Phelps famously swam on Christmas Day in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, so getting a quick workout in before opening gifts and feasting on the Christmas ham is actually a pretty good idea. (Burning some calories before gorging on Christmas cookies is also a fine plan.)<\/p>\n
Back in 2011, I swam outdoors on a sunny Christmas Day in Arizona as I prepared for my third appearance at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials. I was inspired to write an ode to a sunny morning workout sung to the tune of Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song.” Below, I am reprinting the lyric for that song.<\/p>\n
On behalf of my colleagues at Swimming World, I want to wish you a safe and happy holiday season!<\/p>\n
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
\nSunblock slathered on my nose
\nBackstroke flags blowing hard on a wire
\nI stretch my arms and say “Well, here it goes.” <\/p>\n
Everybody knows
\nA pace clock and a sun that glows
\nHelp to make a workout bright
\nJudging by my workout I know,
\nI won’t find it hard to sleep tonight <\/p>\n
I know that Olympic Trials is on its way
\nThat’s why I needed to swim hard on Christmas Day
\nAnd every swimming coach is gonna spy
\nTo see if this breaststroker really does butterfly <\/p>\n
And so I’m offering this simple phrase
\nTo kids from 1 to 92
\nDon’t know if it’s been said many times, but anyways
\nSwim on Christmas
\nKoo-koo-kachoo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jeff Commings TUCSON, Arizona, December 25. IF you are swimming on Christmas Day, it’s best not to grumble about it. Michael Phelps famously swam on Christmas Day in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,24690,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-frontpage","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n