Old sketch from the other blog. Yes I have a few.
Pools are back, baby! And I'm back in the pool. I've been swimming better than until two years ago. And marginally faster. I've built up my stamina over 20/21 and it has helped with swimming. Not just that, my freestyle stroke has improved. I used to cross my right arm over the line of my head earlier and was a habit I couldn't seem to shake it off! Who knew a two year break would be what I needed to get rid of it... (Swimming has marginally helped with my running too!) Another thing that this break did: Made me get used to swimming goggles. I never liked wearing swimming goggles as I thought they weren't always fully water tight and would fog up and even though my eyes are sensitive, I would brave the chlorine and go about my day with sore eyes and I was ok with it. But day two of me swimming in the pool I realised that my eyes were hurting just too much and was affecting my swim as I kept stopping to try to clear my eyes. Also, I was seeing halos around brightly lit things throughout the day because of the chlorine and alum. I was done... done with hating on swimming goggles. I had to go watch a movie in the theatre that evening (theatres are open baby!) but I made it a point to buy a pair of swimming goggles which weren't too expensive. I bought the cheapest pair of speedo goggles I could find. (I watched the movie with still slightly sore eyes) The next day I went swimming wearing those goggles. They fit snugly and let no water in and I could swim non stop! Now this was something. The next day I swam a km of freestyle at a stretch. 40 lengths... no mean feat for me! I've been swimming a kilometre regularly since. I decided to finally also join a gym for strength training too! I entered a gym after a good twenty years and it has been going well... (except for the various gym trainers who have at different times and with different levels of passive aggression told me that there's a lot of work I need to do to achieve the desired body composition and weight (Whatever that means... all I want is to be consistent at this and keep feeling better. sigh...)
While all this was happening, my boyfriend needed to go through a major surgery. It has been physically taxing on him but it went better than expected and I'm thankful that he went through it before it could become anything too serious. He is recovering well now. The last few weeks have been a lot with work and swimming, gym, hospital trips and stuff at home, and I couldn't have gone through everything without it affecting me mentally and physically had it not been for my improved level of fitness. I'm finding less time to while away now a days (which isn't always a bad thing, I would say.)
