a fish called cardinal cyn

sexy, huh?

I heard myself saying all sorts of ridiculous things designed to convince Meyles that today was not a good day for me to start swimming.  When I ran out of excuses I realised two things:

1.  Meyles' Care Factor = zero

2.  If I didn't swim I'd feel disappointed with myself

So...

• I put my togs on and packed my swimming bag
• I drove to the pool, arriving at 9am, noticing the sign said “water = 24 degrees”.  Nice
• I slapped on a bit of sunscreen, pulled on my sexy swimming cap and goggles and stuck my earplugs in my ears
• I entered the water
• [insert expletive of choice] it was freezing!  Certainly not 24 degrees!  It’s 24 degrees outside, so getting in the water should be hardly noticeable except that I’m wet!  Holy crap!



wax ear plugs. you soften then shove them in your ears

• Within about 30 seconds of reacting to the water, I took off slowly down my lane.  I realised much later that it didn’t feel cold anymore.  It just felt normal.  Better than normal.  Wonderful, in fact!

The trick with swimming is to go slow. Otherwise you will drown before you get to the other end of 50m. (Mind you, I had to stop and breathe for about 10-15 seconds at the end of every length.  But still.) Turned out there was about 5 other people in the pool and I had my own lane the entire 45 minutes I swam.  In that time I completed 22 lengths of a 50m pool.  That’s 1.1kms!  Not bad for my first swim in about a year!

i cheat too

I feel so damned impressed with myself.  What a fantastic exercise at this time of year.  Swimming in beautiful water under a blue sky, working hard while not feeling hot and sweaty.  I remember why I love swimming so much.  

Then I plugged in my stats to my new phone app:  www.myfitnesspal.com and was staggered at the calories burned:

·         45 mins of ‘swimming laps, freestyle, light effort’ = 433 calories

That's more than I eat in a whole meal lately!  

I am already planning my next swim.