Sunday, May 11, 2008

On your Mark, get set, GO!

We have really been on the go this week. First, yoga which I really liked, then T'ai Chi which I liked not so much and now two days of swimming laps. For someone who was just a mild mall walker, that is a big change.
So am I creeping along, every muscle aching? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't hardly believe it. I feel good. My shoulders are a little sore as I haven't swum(swam??) in a long time but I did laps for twenty minutes today and it felt really good to be in the water. I am no fancy swimmer though. I do side stroke and back stroke and a kinda froglike front swim,no fancy crawl or anything. I don't like to put my face in the water so the crawl is not for me.
All this swimming made me think back to when I was a kid and took swimming lessons. Ohmygosh. When I was around six I took lessons at the Memorial Pool in Euclid at like 8AM. It was cold and I was a skinny little thing and in about two minutes I had blue lips and wanted to go home. I got taken to the head lifeguard about a hundred times because I complained that I felt sick. I really was just cold and wanted to go home.
Later, I took swimming lessons with my sister at the YWCA. Really, it was called that then. It shared a building with the YMCA and boys and girls went there on different days. So anyway, I did ok until it came to front crawl and I was a miserable failure and couldn't go on to the next class. My little sister did much better but in a show of solidarity stayed in the class with me. She was a good swimmer. I'm sure I held her back from her full potential.
I don't get blue lips so fast anymore as I am not a skinny little thing anymore. And now no instructor is trying to make me put my face in the water and blow bubbles so it's all good.
I hope to swim two other days during the week but we will see how that goes. It will be senior swim and I am not exactly ready to go there, if you know what I mean.
The locker room has really improved too. There is a cool machine that you can put your suit in and it dries it almost completely. Still have to take a shower though. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

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