swimming phase

Now that I'm unable to do two of my obsessions: rollerblading and jumproping, I've had to move on to something more feasible but difficult. And that would be: swimming.

I've never liked swimming. Sure I learned as a 7th and 8th grader just so I could graduate from Arcadia High, but everytime I tried swimming for fun after that resulted in complete suffering: feelings of drowning, coughing, swallowing chlorinated water,inability to breathe, water up the nose, struggling halfway in the pool, etc...

The last time I was even in a pool or a large body of water excluding my bathtub was at UCLA with Tammy years and years ago, and I didn't even do much then. But since my accident, I had to get off my fat butt and do some sort of exercise and since my favorite activities are out of the question (unfortunately for a very long time, damn ankle!), swimming seemed like the good option to me.

So last Saturday I ventured to take a water aerobics class at 10:30am. Old ladies kicked my ass in this class. I couldn't even tread water in the 7ft side of the pool! Let's not even get into trying to swim; everytime the class moved to the other end of the pool to do exercises, I was left behind in the dust.

Even after that, I resolved to give swimming a try. Luckily for me, the pool is so close to my apt that I even overwalked it the first time I tried finding it! And you know I ain't in no mood to overwalk anything nowadays. Anyhoo, the Hearst pool is just lovely. It's open a lot of hours and has a great view of the Campanile.

Tuesday
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10 lengths = 5 laps = 333 yards
~ 2 hours
SLOOOW lane, so slow that the slow people kept passing me! One lap, I got stuck in the middle and didn't move an inch.
Inability to do front crawl, managed a combo of breaststroke, backstroke, elementary backstroke and kickboard in order to make it across a pool that's 33 1/3 yards in length.
I had to take enormously long breaks in between also.

Wednesday
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14 lengths = 7 laps = 467 yards
~ 1.5 hours
Still the slow lane but now upgraded to occasional front crawl. Twas raining while I swam and the night was lovely. =) Thank goodness for 80 degree pool.

Thursday
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16 lengths = 8 laps = 533 yards
< 1 hours
Started out in the slow lane for a few laps then decided to scootch over to the medium lane. And found out that I went faster than the medium people, mostly because I still panic a lot in the water and anything that gets me faster to the other end so I can breathe is a good thing. Which isn't a good thing in the long run, since I end up so out of breath and dying by then. By now, the front crawl is my stroke of choice and I seem to have gotten better at coordinating the breathing.

Anyhoo, I seem to be improving a bit, so that keeps me psyched about going frequently now. =) I probably need a waterproof ipod to keep me going longer. But so far, I like it and hopefully I'll get healthier, my foot seems to like it.

And there's hot naked women in the shower room, what's not to like about swimming?