Tuesday, February 4, 2014

I just swam a mile.


My girl M and I made a solemn pact before I went back to New York and she made her big move (both flights out happened in a matter of days, so you can imagine the degree of gooey emotions and all-around panic).

Yards, feet and inches. Say what?

We had agreed we'd pick up our good, but sadly neglected, habit of swimming regularly. As a way to fell better, and, more importantly, because being in the water is the best freaking thing in the history of forever. So she found a pool close to her home in her new city, with me following into her footsteps in my own city a few days later. We're on, bitches!


Cool vintage looking locker room. 

And we both loved our respective ones. My pool is a community one in my neighbourhood, exactly halfway from home to work (yup, convenient!). And being a community affair, membership is really affordable and the whole atmosphere is very down to earth and relaxed. Not a very common good here on the fancy UES, by the way. And I figured I'd go and splurge and bought a 3-month membership. Talk about commitment.

Putting those Miami Beach flipflops to good use.
No comment on that fish cracker there, not mine.

I finally made it to there today after work. The pool itself is small. A half-size, so 20 yards long. Which roughly translates to 18-something meters. I had no idea the yards vs. meters thing would give me such trouble. The original plan was to do 1000 meters + a little warm-up and cool down, which translates to 55.5 aka 56 lengths (I did the advanced maths all on my own!!!). Since I am colossally out of shape, I figured that would be a good start.I am by no means a serious swimmer, but having virtually grown up in a 25/50 m pool, I am sort of used to those lengths and, apparently, so are my strokes. I lightly bumped either my head or my arm into the edge a few more times than I care to admit and I shall never speak of it again. Back to serious workout now. I'm going to talk imperial, as it's just easier in this context. 

The first 400 yards, aka 20 lengths, were pure hell. It was awesome to be IN the water, but moving around in it? Strange. Very strange. Fortunately, after a while I found my pace and boy it felt good. So good in fact, that I ended up doing a mile. A MILE, as in 1.61 km. I feel on top of the world right now. 

Coolest cap & goggles ever.

You, proper swimmers who munch miles like it's nobody's business, can shut up and let me have it, ok? It is very likely that I won't be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning, so I am enjoying my endorphin buzz while it lasts. Dinner also helps.

SOTD: From Disney's The Little Mermaid - Under the Sea. 
Because: duh!

As mentioned before, I will very likely resemble something dead tomorrow morning when my muscles decide today's adventure was a bad idea. But until then, I'll enjoy my buzz and do some work around that sciency thingy I love doing so much. 

Source.

Just do what Dory days, just do what Dory says, just do what Dory says.
Jules





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