Splashing Again

written late Monday evening after 12 am (Tuesday morning)

FINALLY, after a month without, the water aerobics has worked out for me! The week after my first return post surgery I was not able to go as I had a weird nausea all day that caused me to slum around the house taking repetitive naps for relief. Then the following week our furnace broke when we had a rare frosty cold spell below 32 degrees. With the frozen wonderland outside and the need to bundle up and drink tea inside, I was not exactly jumping for joy out of my warm bed in the morning to undress and jump in the pool!

Ok, so the following week I picked a new day - Monday instead of Wednesday. Wouldn't you know it snowed that morning? Still, I anxiously put on my suit, put the truck in 4-wheel drive, and made my way into town and to the gym (this is the midwest yooper in me coming from where it has to be 40 degrees below zero or dumping so many loads of white fluff that the president declares a state of emergency before they close school). So I drive down there with the pretty 4-6 inches that blanketed the landscape only to discover that all classes at the gym had been cancelled due to the weather.....water aerobics included.

"Oh dear", I wondered. I was already wearing my suit under my outer clothes and ready to jump in. Therefore, I figured I would still go in the pool and find something to do. I could not swim laps because I didn't bring a face mask or goggles. Without them I cannot swim unless it is the dog paddle with my head held above the water because I have to be able to see to keep from getting vertigo and becoming lost in direction.

LOL I thought I would kickboard around seeing as my head would not be in the water, I could see, and there would be no fast jerks of turning my head to disorient me. HAHA..easier said then done! At first I had it in my mind to kickboard 10 lengths of the pool (from end to end). However, on my third pass I felt as productive kicking as I had been in the whipping current we were trying to swim against on the surface of Horseshoe Bay in Canada while diving years ago. (For those not familiar with the sound waters of NW Canada, they have some of the strongest surface currents around. When we got caught it it we were kicking in place and only noticed when we got tired, stopped, and found ourselves being pulled the opposite direction while we rested.) I got to the middle of the pool and was kicking my little heart out but there seemed to be an imaginary magnetic force between my body and the pool which was holding me in place.

After feeling frustrated by moving an inch a minute it seemed like, I stood up and gave myself a good push forward off the pool bottom. CRIPES! At the speed I was going it would have taken me a good 20 minutes or longer to do 10 lengths provided my calves did not cramp up from exhaustion! Thus, I decided to cut it down to 4 and I opted for the easier running of 30 lengths in the pool followed by one lonely kickboard lap to make 5.

So the two final weeks of January did not workout but I was ready again to try another attempt on Monday February 4th. Sunday night while at the gym, I learned that some kind of remodel project was going on and that the gym would be closed Monday morning and thus the pool also and class cancelled.

Well that was just too long to miss. The only other day where I could attend the class was Thursday night of last week. Fortunately it panned out and then this week we are back on regular schedule as I attended the class this morning.

I like the water aerobics because I can do things in the water that I would not be able to outside of the pool. The high jumping is GREAT because I have no worries about falling and hurting myself on the hard ground. When I go my goal is not an aerobic workout but doing my best to maintain a sense of balance with the waves swashing around me from the movement of the other people.