MIDLIFE FITNESS FILES
HAYLEY LAWRENCE, 44
Surfer Hayley lives in Cornwall with her three sons, Oli, 11, Leo, nine, and Sunny, six
Ifirst got hooked on surfing when I was travelling around Australia. When I came back to the UK at 23, I went straight to Cornwall to continue my studies, because I wanted to be by the sea.
Over the next decade I graduated, started working as a journalist, got married and moved to London. But I always felt a niggling pull to ocean life and in 2003 we moved back to Cornwall.
In my mid-30s, my husband left when Oli and Leo were only two and six months. I increasingly spent time on the beach and in therapy to get my head together and deal with my circumstances. I would walk for miles along the sand from Hayle to Godrevy.
I’d always wanted to learn to surf properly. So, on Friday mornings I would book both children into a crèche and get in the sea whatever the conditions. Then, one evening a week, a neighbour would come and look after them and I would jog over the dunes with my fins and have a body surf.
I did eventually learn to surf and now use a proper fibreglass board. I will race to the beach most days after the school run now, before I start work. If there’s no surf, I run along the coast path, and then sea swim (or dip) as much as I can.
I am fitter than ever at 44 and have good mental health because of being so immersed in the ocean environment and living by the sea.
I’ve built a crew of friends through surfing, met my business partner through beach life, and now run a business to encourage other families to see the benefits of surfing and the healthy beach lifestyle. After a swim in the sea, I get this euphoria. My skin burns, but I don’t feel the cold, just a burst of energy and happiness. The theory is that being by the ocean can boost immunity and well-being, partly due to the increased blood flow and endorphins it gets pumping around the system.
Typical workout week
Some weeks I might surf for six days in a row and not do any other exercise. But most weeks, I do a combination of swimming, jogging, surfing and yoga – usually two or three 5km coastal runs followed by a swim in the ocean and 15 minutes yoga flow every day. I also do one or two HIIT workouts at home, focused on building upper body strength, which you need for all the paddling surfing requires.