Cricket & I have been working at establishing a regular schedule of exercise. This is something that has always been difficult for me to stick to. I have a tenancy to go all out on day one and day two and then hurt myself, sometimes fairly seriously, on day three and be unable to continue. Cricket understands this about me and so having her there keeps me from running amok. We’ve decided for now to do something every week day. That’s five days a week. It usually works out to about 3 or 4. This week, because of work schedules and my ankle still a little tender, we’ve taken it a little easier. We’ll do better next week. We alternate swimming and walking. About an hour of each. We’d like to work up to longer distances in the same amount of time and then add some distance periodically.

Cricket is, well, a very PERKY person. I tease her about it–alot–and judging from her responses, I’m not the first to think so. She’s good for me: it’s hard not get catch her enthusiasm, even when I’m cranky and hungry and PMSing. She lets me go on and on until I exhaust myself or get sick of myself but she never loses that PERKY-ness. She’s been a good antidote for the discouragement that inevitably sets in; I don’t like exercise just for the sake of exercising so “taking a walk” or “going swimming” with a friend–especially a friend like her is always preferable to doing it on my own.

Which brings me to the subject of tonight’s post. FatLady floats! If you aren’t fat, you probably don’t know this and if you are, but you haven’t been in a bathing suit for a long time, you may not be aware. Fat is really, really, (really) seriously, amazingly buoyant. I can hang out in the deep end without even treading water. It’s just too funny! I am a Human Buoy! I am unsinkable! On the downside, I can’t swim under water very well because I can’t seem to keep my big butt UNDER the water. I’ll just let you mull over that image….

I am swimming though, not just hanging out and amusing myself by NOT treading water in the deep end or by allowing my giant ass to bob up out of the water to scare the kiddies. I really am swimming. I’m tired when I get out of that water–and let me tell you–after being so wonderfully buoyant–gravity really sucks for a minute or two!

But swimming I am and loving it. Of course, my form is no good anymore. I’m pretty sure my front crawl looks more like just aimless thrashing around; my backstroke is a little better but doesn’t seem to get my heart pumping as much. I can’t quite remember how the breast stroke works but maybe I’ll figure it out eventually. Buy hey, I’m working the shoulders and kicking the legs and I thinks it’s even possible I might actually be getting a bit of cardiac benefit from it too.

Best of all, my back & knees don’t hurt like they do when we walk. Blech, I hate walking.

Swimming rocks. Oh and no worries about the pool not being clean. First of all, there is almost never anyone in it and second, there is so much chlorine in the water, my new suit is getting bleached out already.