Oh, *hi*, exercise endorphins...

[jenett]

... so that's where they were hiding.

By which you might surmise that I made it to the Y, and went swimming, and it was good. Ok, it was also pitiful, because I managed 4 lengths (2 breaststroke, one backstroke, one sculling and kicking on my back) before my body went "Ok, done now." But that's better than nothing, and next time I go, I can aim for 6 or 8 lengths. (And I then went and trod water for 10 minutes, which is also not nothing.)

After which, there was sitting in the whirlpool for a bit. (And, I also have access to a steam room and a sauna there and look forward to trying them out.) I can already feel the post-exercise stiffness in the back of my shoulders, but in a "Hey, worked out these muscles" not in a "agonising pain" sort of way.



This is the first time I've been in a lap pool in... at least a decade?

I started swimming at the YMCA near us at something like 6 months - one of those "Mommy and me" baby swim classes. Sometime around the point I was 4 or 5, there's a famous family story: we were out at the small summer cabin we had in Michigan, which was on Lake Odessa, and my siblings were both out there. I insisted I could swim all the way out to the float in the middle of the lake (probably 30-50 feet out) by myself, thank you very much. My family eventually gave in, but with my brother and father swimming on either side of me, my sister in front of me, and Mom behind me. I made it all the way out, and all the way back, and they sort of gave up on telling me what my reasonable limits were in that kind of thing.

We kept going to the Y well into my early teens, when we joined the Winchester Boat Club (for lo, I am a child of the privileged suburbs) where I did swim team. Not very well - I am not a fast swimmer, and there's also a weird bobble in my front crawl that complicates things (and I'm contemplating, once I've got the stamina for it, a short round of swim lessons to try and fix it: it's related to my other issues with collapsing my left side.) But it did get me swimming for an hour and a half every weekday in the summer, which was not a bad thing.

I also got as far as testing for lifeguard certification, and while I failed the test (largely because I'd missed a class that covered something critical - CPR in the water, due to being at camp for a week), I *did* manage to pass all the quite substantial physical qualification requirements (they've since reduced them substantially, I see from a little Google searching).

At the time (this would be 1991ish), it included swimming non-stop for 30 minutes (much harder than you'd think, even for people who are used to swimming swim team laps all summer), diving to the bottom of the pool and bringing back weights, and treading water for a length of time while holding - I think 10 pound - weight above water. (I almost failed that one, too, but didn't, and I'm still proud of that.)

So, yeah. Long history with immersion of self in water.

Comments

[erispope.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you. Up until a few years ago, I hadn't really been swimming in ages, even after loving it as a child. But I went to visit my grandmother in Florida, just at the cusp of the season where swimming'd be great, and I'd bought myself a cheap swimsuit at WalMart. I spent a few days bobbing in the ocean going, "God, I missed this, why have I not done this in ages?"

I had a gym membership, and happily it included access to a heated pool year round. They even offered water exercises classes at the time. When they stopped, I was reduced to getting water workout stuff on my own. If you'd like to try that, instead of lapswimming (which bores me swiftly, with my miniscule attention span), I suggest this book - The Complete WaterPower workout, http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Waterpower-Workout-Book-Prevention/dp/0679745548


Or DVDs from this instructor, Karen Westfall - most of her stuff can be found at http://www.waterworkout.com/ For Christmas a couple years ago, I got a waterproof mp3 player kit - while it holds a tiny amount compared to an iPod, it holds enough for me to put the audio components of the water workout cds on them, so I can listen to the instructor in the pool.

[jenett]

Ooh - thanks for the links. I actually like lap swimming when I get into it (though I do eventually want a waterproof MP3 player, because I might then get through podcasts in a timely manner.) but the Y membership also includes most of their classes, including water aerobics. When I get my stamina up a little more, I intend to try them out, just for the sake of experience and variation.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

One great thing about swimming is how quickly I make progress as I return to lap swimming from doing other things for stretches of time. I hope that proves true for you as well: it's really encouraging and helps in maintaining that initial commitment.


I began competitive swimming as a 7 yr-old and swam through high school. I didn't swim in college (in California, land of v. serious swimming), but took it up again as an adult, sometimes on Masters teams, sometimes just swimming workouts on my own. I'm on hiatus now because the club we joined has only a 20 yd pool and I'd rather use the step machines and lift weights (because the one thing swimming is NOT is the weight-bearing exercise fitness folks recommend for those growing, er, mature). It's okay, but I'm starting to dream about swimming again, which is always a sign I need to get back to it. Fortunately, there's a new fitness club being built that will be closer to our house and is supposed to have a year-round outdoor Olympic-sized pool. (The one problem with that is that 50 metres is truly daunting when returning from a long time out of the water!)


ONLY SWIMMING ICON I OWN...

[leanne-opaskar.livejournal.com]

Yay for swimming! (: Glad to hear you had fun.

Quick random question. I am pretty sure you have already done this, but have the doctors tested to see if you have mono? I was just sort of mulling over your symptoms and they seemed to match one of my across-the-hall-neighbors from Wellesley, who came down with mono halfway through the semester and basically had a nightmare of a time doing anything. Just a thought, and like I said, you've probably already done it, but.

*hugs* Hope you're doing well and continuing to have good holidays. (:

[jenett]

Noted this in the most recent update, 'cause keshywn also asked - but no, not that. We didn't do the mono-specific test, but the CBC test from middle of the month would have shown any current infections, including mono.