I Swim Like A Cat

So Sunday Amber suggested I go with her to the Wellness Centre and go swimming.  I had run and biked the day before and thought sure, why not.  Amber likes to swim, she used to swim a lot!  I approach swimming the same way a cat does.

Talia (and Cringer before her) likes to go in the tub when it is wet and lick the water.  She likes to play with the stream of water in the sink, she likes to lay in the sink and generally likes all sorts of water play provided that she does not actually have to submerse in water or get too wet.  I like to splash, I like to jump into the pool, I like to generally cavort about and goof around, but actual swimming is not my thing.

My main problem is that I sink, like a rock, wearing lead shoes.  I simply cannot float.  That whole thing where you relax and lay back and float, it does not happen for me.  During our time swimming Sunday Amber said I have to get my ears in the water for it to actually work.  Therein lies the problem.  I hate water in my ears.

This stems from two things.  One is a particular event and the other is just that I hate that bit where water gets in your ear and then it’s there for like hours after your done swimming until finally you lay down to go to bed and *pop* *fuuussshhhh* that bit of water finally drains out onto your pillow.  The particular event is when I was in high school, in Outdoor Ed. class.  We did kayaking at the pool at Trent University, during one of the sessions we had some free time, I jumped off the diving board, did some weird contortion in the air and hit the side of my head on the water.  It must have popped my eardrum or something but also water go in my ear.  It hurt like crazy!  I had to go to the doctor later and get antibiotics.  And since then, I’m not even a big fan of putting my head under water.

So yeah, I swim like a cat, that is to say, reluctantly.  But I did, it was fun and I did 30 laps of our 20 metre pool.  Swimming is a good and hard workout.  Any notion I have of doing a triathlon are totally dashed because I only really swam about 600 meters and I was tired.  I recovered pretty quickly between sets of 4 laps or so, but in a race there is no time for recovery, so I would be screwed.  That and I don’t have a proper bike for any sort of race.

It was nice to have the change of pace and maybe in the winter when I don’t want to be running on the treadmill all the time I’ll do it a few more times.

Change The Look

As you can see I changed the way the whole blog looks.  It has been about a year since I went to the all black background and I wanted to try out something new.  What do you think?  Thoughts? Suggestions?