2/7 The Park

As part of my fitness goals for the year, I have decided to take a walk whenever it is above 50 degrees. My temperature requirement comes not from myself but because of the boys. I don't want them to be too cold just for the sake of me wanting to walk.

Well, Thursday was GORGEOUS. It was almost 60 degrees and I was able to walk with just a sweatshirt. We decided to hit the road when we got home from picking up Luke from school.

I made the impromptu decision to walk down to the park. I saw down because it's pretty much a huge hill down to the park. It's 1 mile away (I checked later with my car), which wouldn't be too bad except for the hill.

Let me tell you, walking down a hill while holding a dog and about 75 lbs of stroller is not easy. It was all I could do to keep the stroller from getting away from me on the steepest parts.

I should have paid more attention. But the stroller was too wide to see.

The bump.

A part of the sidewalk had sunk and left a several inch straight up cliff between it and the next piece of sidewalk.

I hit that cliff going fast because it was downhill.

My strollers wheels were too small. They stopped.

But the rest of us kept going! All of the sudden I was flying over the handlebars as the stroller pitched forward, almost going upside down. I fell to the side and hit the ground next to Nathan.

Layla was confused. A car traveling alongside me on the road paused perhaps a little bit longer at the stop sign and then kept going when it saw me starting to stir. 

I pulled myself up and struggled to upright the stroller. I pulled back the canopy and two sets of eyes looked at me. Not a peep. Luke had his hand on the ground, bracing himself. Nathan was just sitting there, and I'm thankful that we still had him in the shoulder straps or else he would have probably fallen out.

I got them upright. No one was worse for wear. My pride might have been a little hurt.

So we continued to the park. Where Luke climbed the crazy ladder thing like a big boy and Nathan loved the swing.

And then we walked home. Slowly. My shoulders hurt for days, and I had a big bruise on my elbow. But what an adventure!

Mom is a pro!

Mom is turning into a scrapbooking pro! We went shopping today for some extra paper and things and she went crazy in the scrapbook store. We came back and she knocked off several pages without me having to do anything -- she doesn't need me anymore!

In other news, I picked up prescription goggles today. My eye doctor was thoroughly appalled that I was swimming nightly in contacts, even with goggles over them. Apparently the pool is disgusting and she was afraid that my eyes would carry away some terrible bacteria that would then live in my contact case waiting for a day to strike me and poke out my eyes just like Oedipus' mom. She decided to try to prescribe me DAILY contacts JUST FOR SWIMMING. Which, of course, if I was Michael (or Michelle) Phelps, that might be a good idea. However, I am not close to being Michael (Michelle) Phelps and therefore the added expense of daily wear contacts just for swimming is silly.

So I picked up the prescription goggles. The term "prescription" is kind of a misnomer. They have a circle of goggle eyes with different strengths and you look through them until you find what you are. Of course, I am the worst prescription that they have (a -7.0 in both goggle eyes, I think I'm actually -7.5 in a regular eye, but they didn't have -7.5s), but I now have goggles that I can wear to class if I break my regular glasses (How funny would that be?!).

Wii Fit

My little brother and sister chipped in to give Hal and me a Wii Fit for Christmas.

First of all, it's AWESOME. I have been using it nightly and have been having fun doing the games and exercises.

However, it is also not easy! My core is revolting against the yoga poses. Last night I was doing a half moon, which basically consists of leaning to one side, and I COULD NOT DO IT. I was breathing all heavy and my back and legs were shaking. Jeez Louise! The half moon of doom is a nightmare! Apparently I have the flexibility of a tree trunk. Sigh.

I also haven't enjoyed how my Mii blows up to epic proportions when I stand on the board. The first time I used it, my sister was cracking up. First of all, I stepped onto the board and the thing had the gall to say, "OH!" Then it made my Mii fat. So I'm kind of fighting with it right now.

But I will not let my fat Mii beat me down.

Vertical Kick of Death

My swim coach keeps coming up with various ways to torture me.

Last week it was the sprint drill of doom at the end of practice. Actually, all of last week was pretty hard core.

Tonight, it was the vertical kick of death.

In the vertical kick of death, you "stand" upright in the water while kicking either a fly kick or a free kick for a set time period. You hold your hands out of the water next to your head so you can't cheat by using your arms to keep you from going under. Of course, this is in about 8 feet of water, so there isn't any way you're touching the bottom, which is kind of the point.

We did this 5 times for 40 seconds each and then went a minute on the 6th time.

The boys in my lane warned me it wasn't going to be good. And since the boys in my lane are approximately 6 years younger and 5 times faster than me, I had no reason to doubt them.

So imagine my surprise when we started the drill and I was staying curiously afloat with not a fatal amount of effort. I had my hips in line with my shoulders as I was supposed to. I had my hands out by my face.

What possibly could be the trick that I was employing? I looked to the boys, who were bobbing a little more than me.

And then I looked to the girls. On the whole, we seemed to be having an easier go at it.

And it just came out. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I exclaimed, "I think this is easier when you have boobs!"

Poor boys, apparently laughing during the vertical kick of death equals instant mouth in water.

Sputtering ensued.

Marco Polo .... oh no.

I have many fantastic pictures to post from the time I got to spend with my brother while he was on leave and able to come home. I will tell you that I woke up one day with a hurting face because I laughed so hard the night (and into the morning) before.

But I will leave you with a quick story from this evening before I go to bed:

It started simply.

My cousin Jacob started college a couple of weeks ago at Eastern Kentucky University. An avid swimmer, Jacob thought about swimming in college, but decided to go to EKU for their interesting major (Homeland Security) and to do Air Force ROTC.

He is considering joining the club swim team.

(Side note: Universities often have three tiers of sports -- their "varsity sports," which are the people on ESPN who get paid to go to school and who are usually amazing at their sport, "club sports," which are often filled by people who played before and try out to get on the team and the teams often compete against other universities, and "intermurals," which anyone can participate in...in case you needed to know)

Well, my school also has a club swim team. This club team does not have try-outs and you can compete or not compete. I jokingly told Jacob that I would join the IU team and swim against him. We would compete in the two events he did not ever compete in in high school -- the butterfly and backstroke. The race was going to be approximately 5 yards of Fly (I can only do four strokes of fly before I get tired) and the other 45 of backstroke.

So tonight I went to my first swim team practice. I loved swimming laps in college and I looked forward to having someone tell me what to swim.

Tonight was the last practice of the week and in celebration the team decided to play water polo.
In eight feet of water.

I must have looked terrified.

The very nice girl (who had emailed me assuring me that they do accept all skill levels on the team) asked if I wanted to play.

I said, "I'm not sure I'm adept enough for water polo quite yet." I further told her that I didn't want to be "that girl" who makes everyone on her team mad because she is too focused on not drowning to play well (I spend a lot of my life trying not to be "that girl").

She was very nice about it and allowed me to swim in the remaining reserved lane.

I swam a mile, albeit very slowly, while the water polo game raged next to me. (I think I made the right decision -- it looked exhausting.)

At one point in time, I was kick boarding and I noticed that the lifeguard, situated conveniently at one end of my lane, was joined by two other young ladies. I paused at the end of the lane:

"Hey," I said. "I am so out of shape that you had to call in reinforcements?"

The three girls chuckled and the lifeguard assured me, "Oh no, these girls are terrible, they wouldn't be able to catch you."

I went on my merry way. I swam 1650 meters tonight, although about half was on the kick board. My arms already hurt.

I am glad I went, although I'm not sure what lies in store for this particular adventure -- I might not be quite up to team level.

However, just by going to the work out facility tonight I got a free T-shirt celebrating the first week of the semester.

And we all know how I feel about T-shirts.

So I'd say it was entirely worth it.

Alas, no Tshirt this year.

So there was a rumor that I was going to be doing Swim to Summer because I will do just about anything for a free Tshirt.

Of course, the sign ups for Swim to Summer occurred mere days before my study was due for AEJMC. So I put off signing up.

Then I kept putting it off.

And that brings me here, weeks into Swim to Summer with no swimming accomplished.

I didn't even SIGN UP!

I officially stink.

And actually, I DO stink! Because I just finished doing a little jog around the block. A very SLOW jog, but a jog nonetheless. We'll see how long that lasts -- so far, it's been 2 days.

Even though I won't get a Tshirt for jogging around the block, I suppose it's ok. In fact, I have plenty of Tshirts. The one I'm wearing right now is from 1991 (I stole it from my mom). Hal would say that I have an overabundance of Tshirts and I need to get rid of a ton.

However, because of Hal, I have found two Tshirts that I must have. Perhaps I will buy myself one of these Tshirts if I meet some sort of goal.

Here they are: Tshirt 1 and Tshirt2!

And it's true that I'm a huge dork.

One Day I'll Learn

One day I will learn that my body is not meant to run.

When I was in high school there were several girls that I would watch in amazement as they ran. Playing soccer, an older girl looked simply like a gazelle -- she had incredibly long legs and just floated down the soccer field in a blink of an eye.

I watched my friend Laurie run 20 miles an hour on a treadmill. She looked like she was jogging. She asked to try 21, but our acceleration trainers wouldn't let her. As for me, I almost wiped out at 16 --- my feet went right out from under me because I couldn't keep up.

I tried once to do an overlapping run during a soccer game as Sara, the girl playing the position in front of me, went down the field with the ball. It sounded like a good idea. I remember calling to her, "I'm coming, Sara!" as I kept running, and running, and she just kept getting farther away.

I like to say that I lost all semblance of speed when I was finally diagnosed with the tendinitis my sophomore year, but I really don't think I was ever what someone would consider fast. Short legs, "womanly" body, hips that indicate I'm built to breed, not run.

So why do I keep trying to run? I tried last summer. And I've been working on it again now that the weather is getting nicer (we're not holding our breath that it will STAY nicer, I feel that another blizzard is probably just around the corner).

My newest affliction is very exciting because I have not experienced anything like it before. Yeah, I'm used to the knee pain, the ankles rolling, the burning arches.

But my hips --- yes, those aforementioned breeding hips -- have never hurt me.

Until now.

I've run twice the past two weeks. Each time I can't run on the subsequent day because my left hip flexor hurts so bad that I hobble around like a hunched over old woman. It's very attractive, I assure you.

The first time I thought perhaps I'm just out of shape. Perhaps I'm compensating on my left side for a lingering pain in my right ankle (I fell in a hole walking to the mailbox --- I'm a moron). Perhaps I shouldn't run with the dog, because I hold her leash with my left arm.

But, really, isn't it silly I can't run for 20 minutes without being laid up for a week?

Long live SWIM TO SUMMER, an IU program that will be starting up here. I will sign up to do some number of water-related exercise, and if I complete my goal, I will get a T-SHIRT! I will do almost anything for a t-shirt, so I know this is the program for me! I will keep everyone posted with the trials and tribulations of my Quest for the T-shirt. The program is supposed to start March 23, so we will see. (And, don't worry, DWE will count for some of my exercise time!)

I hope that this works -- especially since I will be posting a little about it on this blog (not ONLY about it, of course. I am not a fitness maven. I have to write about other things!). And, when it is finished, I will show off my T-SHIRT!

I bet you can't wait.