Friday, March 30, 2007

Big day indoors

My hair is now officially an indoor fire hazard and my eyes are sore from squinting at small pages, but other than that, I feel pretty good right now.

So I spent four hours working out indoors today. I wasn't all that bad, physically or mentally. And it didn't even turn out to be a nice day outside, so I feel like I won this small battle.

I started at the pool, noon sharp. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about pool swimming. It makes me thirsty like the land of 1,000 suns, and makes my skin and hair feel like I just got back from such a place. But it goes smoothly enough in the meantime, and there's great people watching pretty much nonstop ... because I still can't put my face in the water without taking a big draw of liquid chlorine. I still need to figure that one out.

Open swim lasts two hours, and I thought I'd try to stick in out the entire time. But at about minute 94, I was hit with a need to visit the bathroom at a degree and urgency I did not anticipate. One minute I was fine, and the next, it was as though the entire weight of the pool and everyone inside of it came crushing down on my bladder. I did the last half-lap pulling frantically with my arms while squeezing my legs together. Then I waddled quickly into the locker room. By the time I came back out, about a half dozen children had taken residence in my lane. And since there was only about 20 minutes left in open swim anyway, I decided to call it good. 144 laps.

The I went to the regular gym. I did I few quick upper body lifts to cool down, and I ate a little baggie of dried fruit and nuts. Then I took up residence on an elliptical machine with a copy of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime," which I bought at a garage sale months ago and have been meaning to read. Good book, and fast reading. Before I even knew it, I was on page 136. Two hours, 15 minutes.

Now it's been seven hours since I returned. I left the gym feeling a little depleted, mostly because it's impossible to drink in two hours the seven gallons of water the pool seems to drain from me. But other than that, I felt pretty strong. No knee pain out of what is ordinary. Good signs. Happy day.

Swim: 95 minutes, 2 miles (10,600 feet).
PedalRun (or whatever it is you actually do on a elliptical machine): 135 minutes, 16.8 miles (Distance according to the digital display. Who knows how accurate that is, but since I don't even know what an elliptical machine is supposed to mimic, what does it matter?)
Actual distance traveled: About 400 feet.

Life is a mystery.

10 comments:

  1. You're an endurance animal, Jill. You're making the most out of having to change your preferred mode of training. Good job!

    Drink more between laps, you crazy girl!

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  2. Jill, I cannot believe you can swim that far with your head out of the water! It's like riding a bike with only one leg. Oh yeah -- you do that too! Grab one of those good swimmers and ask for suggestions.

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  3. I'm confused- why would you need to get out of the pool to pee?

    Curious Incident...a great little book for sure.

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  4. See if you can find Ultra Swim shampoo & conditioner for your hair. I swam in high school and it worked really well. It was so hard to find back then! But it looks like several places have it online now.

    Quit drinking the pool water and you won't have to pee so much? :)

    Have you noticed you can sweat while swimming? That's a weird feeling.

    Curious Incident reminded me of one of my friend's sibling's blogs. He's slightly autistic himself.

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  5. Jill,

    http://planetarygears.blogspot.com/

    Jim (hiawatha)'s new-ish site, per your request.

    Cheers,

    WMdeR.

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  6. Nice work Jill! Way to stay active while your knee heals up.

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  7. Really good job adapting to indoors training. I hate the 4 walls and roof thing too but some days ya just gotta be in there. Your previous post and Ode to the gym is great. Keep it up and heal up.

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  8. Ну у тебя и ебало!

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  9. Hi, I like your site. I write a comedy blog, I wondered if you wanted to take part in an interview to highlight your site. My blog is http://mrjoeblogs.blogspot.com. The questions are as follows :

    Name :
    Age :
    Location :
    Vocation :
    Philosophy :

    Sum up what your blog is about.
    Why are you doing your blog?
    What’s the funniest entry on your site?
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    What would you be doing if you weren’t doing your blog?
    Why should someone visit your site?
    What did you learn from your first love?
    Are there any blogs, you enjoy reading?
    If you could invite anyone to a dinner party who would it be and why?
    What's it like living in Alaska?
    What one website would you recommend and why?
    Tell us about a good deed you have done recently.
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    What advice would you have given yourself 5 years ago?
    Any interesting travel stories?
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    Now it’s your turn! Ask me one question, anything you like.
    Your Site Address :

    Kind Regards
    Joe Blogs

    (please include any picture at all that you want to add to the interview)

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  10. nice blog you got there, i liked both, your blog and your pictures, and of course alaska,

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Feedback is always appreciated!