Back in the pool
Dec. 29th, 2008 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janradderAbout a year and a half ago I was in the best shape of my life -- even better than when I was in high school. I'd swam in my first swim meet since 1986 and, after training for it most of the summer, I'd just completed the St. Paul Triathlon and was ready to get back to swimming full-time once my injured shoulder fully healed. I thought I'd take a break of a couple weeks and then get back to it. Which I did, only my shoulder still wasn't fully healed so I decided to take a longer break. That break has lasted until today.
It's kind of depressing, in a way, to get back into the water after not swimming for so long. You start off strong the first couple laps and then suddenly hit a wall as your body demands more oxygen than you are able to supply it. Muscles turn to jelly, your legs develop tiny cramps, and it feels as if you are pulling your body through sludge. Still, I pushed on, knowing that if I keep at it long enough, I'll be back to where I was. And it felt good to be in the water. I've been wanting to get back to swimming for some time now. I'm tired of looking in the mirror and seeing nothing but a flabby neck and feeling soft and fat in the middle.
I came home feeling dizzy and exhausted and hungry but the migraine I'd been working on before I left for the pool had gone into retreat mode and now that I've put some food in my stomach, I'm feeling a lot better. My plan is to swim again on Wednesday and Friday morning and then swim a few more times next week. By then, maybe, I feel like I can go back to the Masters Swim Classes I'd been going to before without feeling completely pathetic. Wish me luck!
It's kind of depressing, in a way, to get back into the water after not swimming for so long. You start off strong the first couple laps and then suddenly hit a wall as your body demands more oxygen than you are able to supply it. Muscles turn to jelly, your legs develop tiny cramps, and it feels as if you are pulling your body through sludge. Still, I pushed on, knowing that if I keep at it long enough, I'll be back to where I was. And it felt good to be in the water. I've been wanting to get back to swimming for some time now. I'm tired of looking in the mirror and seeing nothing but a flabby neck and feeling soft and fat in the middle.
I came home feeling dizzy and exhausted and hungry but the migraine I'd been working on before I left for the pool had gone into retreat mode and now that I've put some food in my stomach, I'm feeling a lot better. My plan is to swim again on Wednesday and Friday morning and then swim a few more times next week. By then, maybe, I feel like I can go back to the Masters Swim Classes I'd been going to before without feeling completely pathetic. Wish me luck!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 08:10 pm (UTC)Mommy Note: A bottle of glucose tablets from the diabetic section of the drugstore is good insurance against the sick dizzy, hungry feeling you get when you've depleted your blood sugar from exercising that hard on an empty stomach. Just take one or two - they act VERY quickly.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:02 pm (UTC)