A Stroke of Genius

My PT said to try swimming (and more importantly, not to walk!).

As did my GP.

You know, low impact, good cardio, and I know how and like to do it.

And my good friend Mama Teacher has been raving about the recent health and attitude benefits of her new workout.

So, today I enrolled at our local pool and rushed to the store before free swim to get assorted things like a big towel and water shoes.

By 10 a.m., I was back at the pool. Now, I've never belonged to a gym and haven't really been in a gym-like space since I finished PE in 10th grade (a looooonnnngggg time ago). I was nervous about locker-room culture, and all the assorted pool rules (do I need to put up my hair? can I take my towel into the pool area?), but the ladies from the just-finished aqua-aerobics class pointed out the shower to use before entering the pool deck, advised getting a lock because sometimes there are problems, and complimented my purple bathing suit!! I was off to a good start.

I asked the lifeguard the best place to swim laps, or at least attempt to, since I wasn't sure how far I could go (rotating my arms to do various strokes perhaps being a problem with my recent flare-ups)--that made the lifeguard nervous that I couldn't swim. I assured her that the problem was stamina not skill, since family lore has it that I swam before I could walk (and there's a picture of me in the YMCA brochure with Gommie attesting to that fact!). So I jumped right in and gave it a try. And I could swim just fine. Freestyle. Backstroke. Even the arms of breaststroke (never could do the froggy leg thing. And never could synch Butterfly.). Plus I did lots of floating and treading, just for a change. I think I was in the pool, swimming almost constantly, for 40 minutes! (which means I'm sure I'm going to feel it tomorrow morning . . . )

And get this: I was one of the youngest, one of the thinnest, and one of the fittest! I think I'm really going to love this. So, if my number of posts decreases, you'll know where I am . . . .