Sunday 30 October 2011

Soggy Sunday

Nearing the end of week 1, and all is going fine. I have been relatively healthy, fairly fit and feel like I'm going in the right direction. I'll need to step it up a bit to hit the first target, but that will be aided by brandshinyspankingnew...gym membership! Hooray! The weather will no longer be an excuse, it really was getting a bit silly running into a gale. With that kind of headwind training I could be a champ in no time.

A picture of this week...work, medium busy, I'm getting back on track and getting things done a bit more on time. I'm going to hardcore it for the next few weeks and try to get properly caught up. Pilates started again, which means an hour on Tuesday and an hour of cardiolates on Wednesday. I ran before both, only 20 mins or so Tues, then a set of 10 short fasts and some hopping and jumping on Wed. I jumped onto a wall, which  easy as it may sound, I was mightily pleased with. I've never been good at jumping, never been able to leapfrog, mostly because I was self-consciously chunkery and scared of squashing whoever I was jumping over, so while everyone else gaily gambolled and leapt about I ran up thinking "I'm going to squash her, she must be scared, how could she not be? I'll run right through her, I can't even get my feet off the ground, even if I do I'll clobber her with my massive thighs" and before I knew it was there, half running, half jumping, full of fear, knocking people over. Oh, the shame. The wall was just above the knee, so not massively high, but a start. i jumped on 5 times, I think it's about my height limit at the mo, but I'll build on it.

I've been watching Crossfit stuff on t'internet, that's where I got the leaping from, I think I might try and integrate it into my gym stuff...not sure what the gym's like facilities wise though. Would like to get into doing some free weights stuff again, but that always brings the palaver of being a girl doing weights, while there are men, being manly men, doing weights wrong...I generalise of course, to make it all the more dramatic. So apart from Pilates and running and jumping, I did a wee run yesty, well a 30min run, which is as big as I get at the moment, and I went swimming a couple of times. I came up with a new swimming challenge for myself. I think I swim too much in my comfort zone which, as a non-swimmer, is a bit crap. Only a tiny iota above lady-swimming in the fitness stakes. So I thought I'd do some intervals, I did a 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 front crawl, with a breaststroke length between each one. It took me 21 minutes. I thought I'd retime in a few weeks, see if I'm any quicker. I have no idea if that's crap or not, but it's no odds really, I swim with swim team on one side, engulfing me in waves, and old men on the other. Generally.

On the day I did the challenge, however, my poolmate was my swim-stalker. To call him that is probably a bit big-headed of me. I don't suppose just because he speaks to me he must secretly love me. Perhaps he is drawn to my swimming finesse? My graceful glide through the water? Whatever it is he is very there. A lot. I've met him before, in the pool, a few times really, he always says hello. A few weeks ago, when I made the mistake of being out of breath and stopping to dunk my goggles (he takes regular swim breaks, and was stopped at the same time, he is almost unavoidable his breaks are so frequent, I might convert to stopping at the deep end, frantically treading water while I dunk the goggles...). He said hello, I said hello, we had some idle, oh it's awful cold in here, yes I'm just off to the steam room, oh I think I've a bit more to do, chatter, and off he went. He reappeared while I was in the shower. I closed my eyes. Which is a legitimate thing to do in the shower, and everyone knows if you close your eyes noone can see you, and it would be completely inappropriate and against all pool etiquette to speak to someone you don't know in the shower who has their eyes closed. His etiquette was impeccable.

After an almost unjustifiably long time washing my hair, with my eyes closed, I rinsed and peaked out. No sign. Heading for my locker, who should appear from behind the cubicles. Yes. Oh what a coincedence! You were coincedentally lurking behind a set of cubicles in the middle of the changing area which have nothing in the vicinity. Just, hanging about, and here, you appear as I get to my locker. Oh, hi, yes, enough for tonight, I've got to hurry actually I've got pilates. And that was the end of that. Then, on the day of the challenge, what drove me through the challenge indeed, was the knowledge that he was There. Of course he was, being There, or Right there seems to be his specialty. So I didn't stop in the challenge, he appeared to have disappeared, then reappeared at the shower - Pilates again tonight? Uh...yes.

Now, I know he's just being nice. And I had resolved to be extra nice and outgoing and speak to lots of people I don't know, in a getting to know the world kind of mission. But I draw some kind of line at socialising in a swimming pool. You're as near naked as you ever will be with a stranger. I find it hard enough to speak to people fully clothed, why would being in a one-piece too tight swimming costume with my hair in all manner of directions and hairy legs(awaiting they day I am brave enough to epilate...will come to that later) be any more conducive to conversation? And if we do strike up some kind of weird swimwear shrouded swim/steamroom based friendship how could I possibly ever speak to you in real life, when I do have all my clothes on, when I know, in your head, I am wearing a swimming costume and goggles. And not in a Pamela Anderson kind of way.

That is the story of my swim-lurker. He seems nice. But I don't like speaking to people in swimming pools. I shall continue to be civil, and become ever fitter as I never again stop for a swim break.

And to the epilation. I'm not exactly sure where I was going with this post, I think I've left too many days to talk about all at once. My one minor blip this week(apart from the two crunchies and a piece of courgette cake...), which may be considered a downfall from the outside, but which I know inside was nothing of the like, was the few glasses of vino I had last night. At the thought of my impending gym goer status, and the fact that I already bare a lot more at the swimming pool, while speaking to people, no less, I thought I really should try and be less bigfoot like on the legs front. I thought one day I might even wear shorts to the gym. It might be far off...I'm not sure why shorts seems such a leap when a swimming costume is not problematic, but it does. So last night, Halloween Saturday on pay weekend, I stayed in, watched a film, had a couple of glasses of wine, and braved the epilator. I have epilated before. The first time I manage one shin. It took two weeks to build up to the second, and my legs were off kilter for some time.

I've never gotten into an epilating routine. It is quite sore...I tried ibuprofen, didn't work. I tried waxing, that was worse. I can inflict ongoing medium pain, but can't quite bring myself to rip all my hair out with a wax strip. So I went to get waxed. That was sore. And when I got home my legs were still hairy...so the pain didn't even achieve anything. I'm not exactly sure what happened there...I'm not excessively hairy, like some kind of chipmunk or trollman, in fact having epilated a few times I'd say I'm quite non-hairy. So, last night, 2 glasses of wine down I epilated. That's pretty much the end of the story, it was uneventful. I've vowed to keep it up. Today I bought tanny moisturiser stuff, my legs shall be chunky, yet smooth and bronzed in no time.

I'll be fighting them off at the pool this time next week.

I think that is all I have to say...Halloween tomorrow, I've bought sweets and nuts in anticipation of a child-sized invasion. I hope they appear or I'll have to eat it all myself. Probably.

I think this week I'll learn to skip, I'll try a bit every day after work. Gym goer as of 1st Nov, so I'll run/swim tomo, then there'll be no stopping me. It's going to be a veggie/soupy/fishy/spinachy/fruity/nocakey week this week. And heavy on the water, I've not been doing well on that front.


1 comment:

  1. Has your blog died? Shame, I was enjoying it... particularly the swimstalker stories. Unless he got you and you're in a basement somewhere - hope it's warm and dry!

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