It started out as a desire to keep up with my workouts while in Florida. I exercise 6 days a week with a personal trainer back home. I guess you could call that obsessive. I wish I could say that three years of regular, demanding daily workouts resulted in my losing the 25 extra pounds I carry around. But alas. . . no. But I am stronger, and my weight has been redistributed. It's a constant battle.
But since it is a battle, I can't stop. So one of the first things I did upon arriving in Sarasota was to go check out the Y. There are three branches of the Y fairly close to where I live. I checked out the two that had a pool along with the cardio equipment and weights. My plan was to go regularly, do weight training and cardio, with an occasional dip in the pool.
I adore being in water. My idea of a water workout is to go into deep water and just keep moving for an hour. I have long given up getting my head under water. I have some sort of deviated septum or something that makes water get all up in my head whenever I put my face in. As a child I had to swim with nose plugs. So all my swimming strokes are breast stroke with head up, or backstroke or side stroke. Kind of easy swimming. Or just treading water.
So last week I take my suit and after some cardio I go into the pool which is set up for lap swimming. And I get in a lane and start meandering up and down a bit until I get bored. I had counted the lengths I did, and it was probably about 10. It felt really good. And I tried doing a heads up breast stroke down one length, and then returning with backstroke. Well, for the first time in my life, the backstroke felt wonderful. And I felt like I was going pretty fast. And I realized that all the three years of weight training has made me pretty strong. That must be what is different! I felt like I had really done some great exercise after those 10 lengths! As I got out of the pool I walked past a chart that told me that 18 lengths of the pool was a quarter of a mile. And I thought to myself, "Well, I could just get in and do 8 more, and I would have swam a quarter of a mile!" That sounded like a herculean effort, but what the heck? So that's just what I did.
And I got out feeling really great that I had accomplished that. No farting around, mamby-pamby glorified treading water for me! Nope. . . I was in there with the big boys. . . . swimming laps without stopping. NEVER could have imagined that I could do that. But I found it invigorating and really totally ZEN!!
That weekend I saw my brother Chip and told him I had swam a quarter of a mile and he was very impressed. And I have to say, it was fun impressing my brother! Heck, I was feeling positively ATHLETIC!!
While Joan was here I continued to go to the Y every morning. And the second morning of my swimming, after going my quarter of a mile I felt like I could keep going! But about that time, another swimmer came along and I had to share the lane. This is not impossible, but requires that you stay to one side so as not to bump the other person. And this other person was a woman probably in her late 40's who was a bona-fide swimmer! She was lean and mean with racing cap, goggles, and a stroke to die for. She was one of those people who just glides through the water, makes the spiffy turn at the end, and glides on back. But I was determined not to be intimidated. I continued my heads-up breast stroke one way and the back stroke the other way. And of course I had to count. And I counted the lap I was on with every stroke so as not to lose count. You know. . . on lap 13 I would be saying 13, 13, 13, 13, etc. at every stroke. At one point I stopped to rest and she stopped to rest and I mentioned that I was getting close to swimming a half mile! She was really nice and said to me, "Wow, you'll be doing a mile in no time!"
And in that sentence everything changed for me. I had a paradigm shift where I didn't even know a paradigm existed. I absolutely love it when I can trace a direction in my life to one off-the-cuff statement made by someone. Without going into detail, my moving to Nelson County, Virginia started with the statement made by my son Casey in his senior year in college: "Mom, it's my senior year. For parent's weekend could we just go away somewhere for one night?"
Once in Nelson County, all the close friends I have now can be traced to a random statement made by teacher friend who was visiting me at my house on the mountain when she said, "Could we just turn off here and try this winery?" I won't explain how that happened but it set the direction for my book club, my biker's group, and all the close friends I have now.
I could give more examples. But let's go back to Jane, the great swimmer, in the pool at the Sarasota Y. She said to me: "Wow, you'll be doing a mile in no time." Up to that moment, it NEVER occurred to me that I would be capable of swimming a mile. It had been a surprise that I had swam a quarter mile. But suddenly I realized that she was right. I wasn't even tired that day after swimming the half mile. And I hadn't been bored (miracle). In fact, I had loved every minute of it.
So the next day I came back and swam three quarters of a mile. And I saw Jane and told her that I had. And she said, "You have great endurance!" This was mind-blowing. You see, all my life I've been a quitter. When the going got rough, I quit going. Or at least I spent nearly all the time involved in physical effort wanting to quit. This is why I work out with a personal trainer. . . . he doesn't let me quit! I can't describe what if felt like to be told I had endurance. And then suddenly. . . I did!
So I left the gym on top of the world after my 3/4 mile. And then I woke up on Friday, the first day that Joan was gone, and as I dressed to go to the Y, I said out loud to myself, "Today I'm going to swim a mile." And I marched into that pool and began to count laps. And I loved every single minute of the effort. And I swam that mile. . . almost without stopping. . . . 72 lengths of the pool. The wonderful payoff at the end is the 10 minutes in the hot tub, 5 minutes in the sauna, and 5 minutes in the steam room. . . dunking myself in the "instructional" pool between each. Then a shower and hair wash, and walking outside feeling like a zillion bucks.
Today I swam another mile. Tomorrow I'll swim another. Because I can swim a mile. I have endurance! Who knew??? Thank you, Jane!
I absolutely, postively, completely LOVE THIS!
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