The Good. The Bad. The Ugly

THE GOOD
I did it. For the 1st time in over a year I made it to the pool for a swim. In fact, I managed to get in a 1/4 mile swim! I've been to the pool in the new 'hood several times with the kiddo, but that only consisted of splashing around and playing with the kiddo.

My neighbor, Kathy, met me there at 7 am as planned. She's also an avid runner, but sticks to trails due to some past stress fractures. She also bikes and like me, is a novice swimmer. However, she has been in the pool a lot lately and is much better than me.


THE BAD
Due to all the rain last summer, a majority of my swim lessons were cancelled. However, I did feel like I had made a lot of progress by the time my 3 weeks of lessons were over. Unfortunately, when I started my attempt in the pool this morning, I felt like I had forgotten a lot...well okay, I felt like I had forgotten pretty much everything.

I still have the issue of not being able to breathe correctly. Several laps consisted of me stopping midway to cough up the water I had either snorted or swallowed. Around my 3 lap, I caught myself just swimming with my head up. Then I had to give myself a stern talking to..."Christy, this is not how you're supposed to swim, this is stupid!"..."If you don't at least try to get the breathing down, you're never going to get it!"... or a simple, "get your freaking head in the water!"

So yes, I did get in a quarter mile...but I stopped after a length and rested. Kathy rested for 15 seconds between length...my rests were more like 30 seconds, sometimes longer. 30 seconds of panting and trying to catch my breath. So, I won't tell you how long it took me to do that 1/4 mile. ;-) It was bad.


THE UGLY
By the end of my swim, I was pooped. In the last two laps, my calves were cramping and I was done. That part was ugly. Well, that and my hair. LOL! I need to get a new swim cap, because I haven't been able to find mine since the move.

The not so ugly part was that I had fun. Hell, I had a blast. Kind of like riding my bike...I really, deeply enjoy it and it doesn't feel so much like work. Now, if I could just suck less at it....

I think I am going to try to work in 2 swims per week, 2 runs per week and a bike ride per week (and maybe a few brick workouts mixed in) until the maternity leave is over. After that, I'll have to rethink the strategy.

Workout Stats
1/4 mile swim