Swimmin!

[mrlich]

Just a quick note to pat myself on the back. I arrived in town (NH) this past Monday to do some training for work. Because I'm going to the same location for work every day this week, I decided to just stay at the same hotel for the whole period.

The hotel has a pool.

Well, most of the hotels I stay at do. I make it a point, but now I'm getting sidetracked.

I've been meaning to start a swimming regiment to get myself into some kind of shape. Driving all day every day - much like sitting in a cubical every day - isn't doing my body any good.

After a chit chat with xtingu, who was good enough to call me on my bullshit, I finally got my butt in gear.

Oh, and I should be clear up front - this is NOT an Olympic size pool. Quite the contrary. I paced it out, and I'm guestimating that it's in the ballpark of 40 feet long. Still, this has been the breakdown so far:

Monday Night: 70 laps.
Tuesday Morning: 50 laps
Tuesday Night: 30 laps (ran out of time)
Wednesday Morning: screwed up - didn't have time to swim
Wednesday Night (just now): 100 laps

It's only been three days, but I'm pretty proud of those numbers. That said, I'm intentionally NOT figuring out the calories burned etc because I'm afraid I will be discouraged. Instead, my goal is to just keep increasing those numbers over time.

First though, I have to keep it up enough to make it my regular routine.

It's all about making it part of the routine.

Comments

[ms-violet.livejournal.com]

This is so, so, so good.
I'm finding that it's easier for me to meet goals if I set them smaller than I think I can achieve. i.e., hello, weight machine. you look like I can handle about 40 lbs of what you can dish out, so I will set your weight on 30 and do 15 reps.
hey, I did 15. that feels good. let's do 5 more. hey, I just did 20.

as opposed to struggling to do 15 reps with 40 lbs. and getting frustrated.

Go git 'em, tiger!

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

Yup. Sounds like we're in a very similar place. I need to get myself into the habit of doing something consistently first and THEN increase the effort - not come out of the gate trying to break records. I've done it that way in the past and I burn out too quickly.