I’m a sook

Ok, I’m meant to be doing a 45 minute off-road run today.

To save money on petrol I decided to bring Mark into work and then run around the park from 4pm and then pick him up after 5pm.

Today was meant to be a bike to/from work as well.

So what have I done?  Moped around looking at various websites to see just how bad the weather is in hopes that I can feel validated in not going out in the pouring rain, windy and cold conditions.

At 4pm I looked up Weather Underground and it was Heavy Rain and a 32km SW wind.  That sealed it for me.

Where’s my back bone you ask.  Yeah I’d like to know too. 

I’m going to head over to QEII after picking Mark up to have a look at the facilities.

If the gym is comparable to Pro Fitness then I’m going to give up my $14.80/week membership and sign up for a year at QEII.

You do the sum, but it’s cheaper, plus by signing up for the 12 month multi membership I get all the pool facilities as well.  So even if swimming is just a fad then I wont have squandered money.

I’ve decided that I really want the swimming to work out.  I want to use it as a form of relaxation.  I really want to be able to swim comfortably and effortlessly up and down, up and down without a care in the world. 

Who knows if it’ll ever feel effortless.

I’m fairly certain Richard is now incorporating swimming in my programme which undoubtedly means he wants me to push it rather than me swanning about in the pool.  No, I’m not graceful enough to be “swanning”.

So now I have my eye on the PhysioMed Women’s Tri series.  Just have to find/save $110 to enter the series.

At least I know now that the dates don’t clash with the Crater Rim run and the Source to Sea cycle event.

I guess with all these new goals in mind I really ought to get off my butt and put my money where my mouth is and TRAIN.

Alas, here I am in the warmth of work avoiding the dreariness of the view I get from the smallish window on the other side of the room.

And they sing

Last night was spin class.  I had been dreading the lateness I would get home for about a week or two.

First off I had a meeting that lasted all day.  And by that I mean all day, to 5pm.  That’s an hour more work for me since I usually finish around 4pm.

So the 5pm finish put me out of the 5pm spin class I usually attend (when not out of town).

I’d asked Richard several weeks ago to put me in the late class but he forgot to add my name.  He assured me that someone would drop out and there would be space for me.  Both classes were chocka booked.

Oddly enough I felt at peace (can I say that)?  I must have resigned myself to the timing of the activities for Wednesday and so finishing late, and not getting home until after 8pm was no longer a big deal.  It wasn’t something that I was looking forward to, but there was no point getting worked up over it.

The spin class was good.  Though I found that I was in an easier gear and feeling like I was madly working where other weeks I’d be in a harder gear.

What I loved about last nights session is that Graeme was my buddy and he’s terrific with encouraging you.  And even better, his encouragement actually works i.e. I work.

Unbeknown to me Graeme reminded Richard that it was my birthday (without me being aware) and so the whole class – 19 others!  (so much for a 16 person class) – sang Happy Birthday …. to me.

I didn’t get home until after 8pm.  So by the time I heated up dinner and ate by myself, with Mark listening to me in between mouthfuls it was pretty much time to unwind and get ready for bed.

This morning my hamstrings feel a bit stiff.  We did stretch after the class but I obviously would have benefited from more.

It was good to be on the bike.  I think the last time was almost 2 weeks ago when I was last at the class.  The filthy weather has been interfering with my bike training sessions.  Getting in a lot more running though.

Fish like freestyle

Good on you Deo.  He burnt me a copy of Total Immersion Swimming and I’m watching it right now.

Wow, so much to know just in Lesson 1.  I’m not sure having the water cover your head as much as they show will be easy.  I have a fear of drowning and while the water never covers their face in the DVD it sure covers more than I would be comfortable with.

Has anyone else (other than Deo) used this DVD?

I’d be interested in your initial concerns and how you’ve coped and benefited from following the practices of Total Immersion.  How long did it take you and how many times did you practice these techniques.

I have so much to learn.

Oh Rachel, I know you mentioned about a guy that was thrashing about in the water one evening you were practicing, from what I heard just recently (and who told me and where I heard it alludes me right now), Surf Lifeguards are taught to really thrash the water because they’ve got to pull through the sea and waves.  It made me wonder if that might the the case in the guy you came across.  He might not be uncoordinated but have learnt to swim in open sea and therefore developed a very different technique.

Listen to me, as if I know something about swimming now

Ok, so on Saturday when I head down to the pool I’m going to practice extending my spine, finding my balance and allowing my body to sit lower in the water than what I’m comfortable with.  And that doesn’t even cover all of what was mentioned in the first chapter.

I guess I thought that I might just watch the DVD from start to finish, pick up a handful of tips and be on my way but I can already tell there’s a lot more to swimming, I didn’t really think it was simple, but I’m just starting to grasp how complex it is.

I think I’ll leave it at Lesson 1 and watch it over and over again.  I hope that I learn quickly because there’s so much more yet to come.

Hill repeats

Last nights running group consisted of hill repeats.  Now I don’t mind then (usually) because it’s a weakness of mine and I know that unless someone tells me to do them I wont take my own initiative.

Ok, so doing the stairs after Rapaki is my own initiative but that’s to fill in time to get me to the magic time.

Yesterday we headed out to Ramahana Road.  I’ve biked it up for hill repeats and I’m not a fan.  It’s tough going.

We ran along Centaurus Road, left into Parklands Drive which runs into Huntsbury Avenue  and becomes Ramahana Road again.

It’s 2km of sheer guts and determination.  Ok so for those with lots of hill work under the belt it might be more a stroll in the park.  For me it was hard, really hard.  Even the downhill, and it’s a great downhill, you’ve worked hard for it. 

Running down hill was triggering my hip and it was quite painful, but more concerning.

We all ran the first loop together – except I was several meters lagging behind so “together” is mentioned loosely.

As I was running back to the start point I was feeling a big grumpy, my hip was playing up and I was tired.  I felt like throwing my toys out of the cot.

Desperately I was hoping we only had to do it the once cos I wasn’t going to do it again, that’s for sure.

But instead of doing it once more, it was twice more.

And I did it.

Here’s the course.

When I got home my hip mostly came right.  I was talking to Richard on the phone and couldn’t feel anything so that pleased me.

But soon after it was hurting, more pain that I remember for a very long time.

Unfortunately Anti Flamme doesn’t do anything so I guess it’s not muscular. 

I have two more runs this week, a short 45 minute off road and then the Greta Valley Winter Warm Up.  I will be crossing my fingers it improves.

I suspect the increase in off road running, and hill work is taking it’s toll.  Lets just hope that my body will adjust and this is just teething problems

Culture shock

Ok, I have to get this out the way before I tell you about my swim.

As I walked into the ladies changing rooms after my swim there were three 20 something ladies in the buff shampooing their hair.

At first I thought I must be a prude because when I rinse off after swimming I don’t go naked.

Anyway, I looked away so that they couldn’t see the confusion on my face and the look of worry.

I spent a few minutes towelling myself off wanting to go and rinse the chlorine off my body but too embarrassed in case I got it wrong last week and you’re really meant to be starkers when showering.

Then another lady went to rinse off in her togs so I thought I obviously wasn’t completely mistaken and perhaps it’s an age thing.

Anyway, towelling I realised that one of the girls – who by now had stepped into the corrodore type area was also toweling herself off and she was bald.  Yep, that’s exactly what I mean.  Again I looked away quickly.

These ladies were not at all ashamed of their bodies.  I realised they can’t be Kiwi’s cos we’d be covering up unless we had a “die-for” body.  And lets face it, would you be finding those types in the public pool?

I was rinsing off and wearing my lovely pink jandals (the idea of foot fugus is another thing that makes me shudder) when one of the other girls stood in the corrodore toweling off.  She had a little racing stripe thing happening.  Again I look away.

But she was talking to one of the others about my “flip flops” and saying how dear they are here cos back home in Brazil (ahh ha!! no wonder being naked in amongst strangers isn’t going to raise any eyebrows for her) they’re like $10.00 and here they’re like $40.00.

Phew, so back to my prudish Kiwi ways.  There’ll be no stripping off in a communal place for a shower for this prudish girl.

You know what, they didn’t all have perfect bodies and yet in amongst their sisters they were quite comfortable being starkers and not whining about how they’d like to lose a bit of weight, or tone up here, or have some sort of surgery to plump up their breasts.  Ok, they’re 20 something so some of those worries are in their future.

When I got home to relay the story to Mark he was quite funny.  He put his hands behind his head and did some little hip swivels.  I told him (warned him) I’d be mentioning his moves in my blog.

So the swimming.

I got there early so that I could put in some practice.  You know, so that when I’m asked if I’d been in the pool practicing I could look the tutor straight in the eye and proudly declare I’d been a good pupil.

My plan was to swim a length and backstroke a length.  Last week I found I just didn’t have what is needed to contineously swim.

Nor did I this week because I still had to have a wee rest between lengths.  However I managed more lengths this week than last.  Not anything I should feel proud of yet.

So the lesson starts and sure enough the question is aksed, have we been in the pool since last week.  And I could honestly reply YES.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, I took only what I needed in my little Active Women’s bag and left it in the cubby hole.  I seemed to have aquired a tank top in the same space.  Someone must have seen my lovely pink jandals and thought they’d act as some sort of marker for where they’d left their gear.  Ah ha!  Caught out cos I left first (she pokes out her tongue to prove she’s still young and childish).

I still tuck my head under too much.  I thought I was trying to be better.

Last night we learnt how to take a breath from both sides.

Now I was surprised we got into this because I still don’t yet feel I’ve got the whole breath thing happening.  Even when I take a breath I hold it until my hand gets into the water and then start blowing bubbles.

So we started out with the boards and had out right arm touching the fartherest point and our left hand (cos we’re all right side breathers and were learning to breath on the left) just sitting on the bottom right corner.

We had to then breath from the left and blow bubbles and repeat.

I found this easier than I expected.  It was just a case of realising you more or less rest your ear on your right shoulder when you take a breath.

We progressed to then having our left hand under the board and incorporating a stroke with our left arm.  And you guessed it, eventually did away with the float and swam.  Yep we swam breathing every 3 strokes and my word it’s so much easier.

Ok, it’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination but it was less taxing.

I think I’ll have to go through this progressive routine until I get it down pat but it’s a great way to get it all started.

My intention had been to stay behind and practice some more but by the time we were done there were so many people in the slow lane.  Almost a chain of swimmers.

Next week our lessons will begin at 5:30.  That’s better.  Means I get home 30 minutes sooner, or I can stay behind a bit longer to practice.  Still I will get some practice time in before even with starting a half hour sooner cos I will finish at 4pm rather than hang around at work.

Anyway, it’s starting to take some shape.  I’m just left wondering how long it takes before you feel comfortable in the water breathing and not needing a recovery period after each meager 25m length.  I keep thinking that I’m reasonably fit, I can ride and run for hours and yet I’m exhausted after 25m swimming.

I want to be able to swim up and down, up and down and feel relaxed and in control.

Ok, so again my impatience raises it’s ugly head.