Is it lazy if I\u2019m not writing because I\u2019d rather get a workout in?\u00a0 I know it\u2019s been a while since my last post, so I\u2019ll try to get the next few quicker.\u00a0 At least I\u2019ve been burning enough calories to keep me sane.<\/p>\n
I admit it now \u2013 this no running thing is really starting to get to me.\u00a0 It\u2019s summer, and each time I see someone out running I get a little jealous, especially if they are running with earbuds.\u00a0 I know there are some purists out there who feel that running while listening to music is cheating yourself out of the sounds of nature, but when you live in the city or the suburbs there isn\u2019t that much nature to be heard.\u00a0 Besides, I came into running about the same time the Walkman came out and immediately got hooked in trying to match my gait to the tunes. \u00a0For the past 30 years I\u2019ve been recording \u201crunning\u201d songs with a good beat and rhythm.\u00a0 In the old days it was usually off the radio to a cassette tape, these days I \u201cShazam\u201d them and load onto my Ipod.\u00a0 There were few things I enjoyed more than getting out on a nice day when I\u2019m feeling good and cruise along to some fast tunes.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m doing my best to speed walk to them, but even at about a 14 minute\/mile pace, it\u2019s just not the same.\u00a0\u00a0 Then I noticed some folks swimming with \u2013 low & behold \u2013 EARBUDS!\u00a0 They make Ipods for swimming!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m lucky enough to have very generous in-laws, so with my birthday cash from them this year (takes me a while to spend it sometimes) I purchased a pretty little blue Shuffle and happily loaded it up with some of my favorite running tunes.\u00a0 While it\u2019s an adjustment for me to pull the swim cap over my ears in order to keep the buds in (I\u2019m one of those \u201cears out\u201d swimmers) I was still excited with my new toy, and couldn\u2019t wait to try it out.<\/p>\n
Into the water and the first thing I notice is I\u2019m a REALLY LOUD SWIMMER.\u00a0 Perhaps not so much that anyone else would notice but when the swim cap is pulled over my ears, all the sounds of my breathing are amplified and I sound like freight train.\u00a0 So \u2013 the volume on the Shuffle gets jacked up high, problem #1 solved.<\/p>\n
Problem #2 was my choice of music.\u00a0 As I tried to move my arms in time to Lady Gaga it only took me one length of the pool to realize that arms pulling through water are not going to come close to the cadence of your legs through the air.\u00a0 Perhaps for a 50 yard sprint, but not my 7000 yard endurance fix. Back to the drawing board on that one & time to laod up some Enya perhaps?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My next adventure in swimming is due to the fact that I\u2019ve registered for an open water swim race in August, so I felt the need to get into the open water.\u00a0 I registered for a swim in Lake Michigan with a nice coach & even rented a full sleeve wetsuit for the occasion, thinking I\u2019d be mighty comfortable.\u00a0 Getting to the beach on a 90 degree day had me believing it might even be too warm for the full sleeves and considered grabbing the sleeveless one instead.\u00a0 Then I got into the water.\u00a0\u00a0 The 60 degree (or maybe high-50s) water.\u00a0 Whoa!!!!\u00a0 Ok, feet & hands a bit chilled, but my body felt ok and after a minute I felt good enough to try some dolphin dives & bobbing to get my face in the water.\u00a0 SON OF A $%#*!!!\u00a0 Suddenly I forget how to breathe!\u00a0 The coach gives us a warm-up route so I head off.<\/p>\n
The last time I swam in Lake Michigan was 2 years ago and I remember it taking about 10 minutes to get warmed up enough to swim with my head down, so I figured it would just take a bit of time.\u00a0 Well \u2013 after about 30 minutes of sputtering about like I\u2019m in a water polo game the coach asks if anyone is really too miserable to swim in the cold.\u00a0 Out of 20 of us I was the only one raising my hand to bail.\u00a0 Who cares \u2013 I was freezing with bright red hands & feet and felt no shame as I hiked up the beach to my car.\u00a0 I felt better when I saw at least 3 other folks heading to the parking lot as I pulled out.\u00a0 Even better when I made it to the pool in time to get\u00a0 3000 meters in much warmer water.\u00a0 Swim wimp!<\/p>\n
Hope all your own adventures in or out of the water treat you well.<\/p>\n
Keep moving!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is it lazy if I\u2019m not writing because I\u2019d rather get a workout in?\u00a0 I know it\u2019s been a while since my last post, so I\u2019ll try to get the next few quicker.\u00a0 At least I\u2019ve been burning enough calories to keep me sane. I admit it now \u2013 this no running thing is really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ayearwithoutrunning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}