I feel like a tub of lard
So, lately I've been dropping by the pool instead of the ice rink. For now, it's a better way for me to get exercise since a) it's really really really hot and b) the pool is a 30 second walk from my dorm room vs. an hour bus ride to the rink. I hadn't swum in YEARS but was inspired to by watching the Olympics this summer. (I swear I'm not doing it for the cute guys. I SWEAR.)I've always known I have no endurance. I have a hard enough time running (jogging? Haha) 400m, let alone swimming a lap. At first I couldn't even make a measly 25m lap, but now I'm getting a little better. At least my feet don't cramp up as quickly and I don't run out of steam as fast, even if I still have to stop every time I do a lap so I don't feel like I'm going to drown. I'm actually starting to like doing freestyle. *gasp*
But just now I was in the pool with this guy who was doing freestyle laps with a buoy between his legs. Meaning, he was doing freestyle only using his arms. The entire time I was at the pool (about 30 minutes), he was doing this. Pulling strokes, flipturn, then resuming. Lap after lap after lap. By MY third lap, my arms were exhausted, and I had been kicking the entire time. Man, I DO feel like a tub of lard.
*cries*
posted by sugarfiend @ 12:36 PM
5 Comments:
you're gonna hate me for this, but stamina is about 10% physical and 90% mental.
that said, cross country running still doesn't look very appealing to me....
btw, have you ever actually seen a tub of lard? it's quite frightening. i unfortunately happened upon mrs. pang one day, packing pintfuls of lard into a giant measuring cup as she was preparing to bake her supremely delish almond cookies. i regretted doing so. but didn't regret eating the cookies a few hours later.
Haha, no I actually haven't seen a tub of lard. Bet it would be yummy tho. Heh.
And about the stamina thing, I am a wuss. I like to take things easy so my body won't get mad at me later. Considering how much I suck, there's nowhere to go but up, right? On the bright side, I actually got less exhausted as I kept swimming - I tried something different (putting my hands in the water earlier) and that seemed to make it more efficient. I only stopped when my foot started to cramp up. A proper athlete would work through then pain, I know, but then again, foot cramps suck major ass.
Warm up first (esp feet) before you hop in the pool. It helps. Ever wonder why tkd tries to do really thorough warmups? If you're not like WARM, if legs aren't feeling like jelly, there's a much greater chance of pulling something nasty, like a groin muscle or a hamstring. Yow.
I actually have pulled a groin muscle. I was spinning, and lost my balace and fell on the front of my knees. Apparently the velocity change (~2 rev/sec --> 0 in an instant) was so abrupt the muscle couldn't take it. I literally couldn't walk for a couple days, and whenever I tried to move my right leg at all, it HURT. It really really really sucked, although it had gotten almost back to normal in about a week. I'm not sure it was an actual pull - the groin injuries that Olympic-level skaters have are often career-ending because it's the kind of thing that never goes away.
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