Swim Report

I went for my first swim in about two and a half years today. I didn't swim when I was on Hawaii in December 2008. Crazy, I know.

I got up about 9:40 AM, ate breakfast and put on the several layers of clothing. My dad was really surprised when I said I'd go swimming, he asked where? So I told him I'd go to the Kulki, which is one of Leipzigs many lakes. ;-) He didn't think it was funny. XD It snowed since yesterday evening and the streets are a mess.

It took me about 40 minutes to get my bag ready!!!
Getting the duffle from the top of the wardrobe took 5 minutes,
searching and finding my swimsuits 10 minutes,
finding the right bath towels 5 minutes,
thinking on what else I need another 5 minutes,
putting the rest together 15 minutes.

When I was finally ready to leave for the swimming pool, I realized that I didn't have food for afterwards. Mmmh. I went to 3(!) stores to get the right granola bars, I didn't get them so I settled for Oreos. Yep, you've read right Miss-I-only-eat-healthy-stuff got herself Oreos. I LOVE them even though they are way too sweet.

Anyway, I was at the Sportbad an der Elster at 12:35 AM and got myself a ticket for 3 hours for 5 €. Normally it would have been ONLY 4,50 € (the stuff dripping from your monitor is my sarcasm), but since it's weekend it's plus 50 cents. I wonder why they have a problem with not earning enough money... mmh, might be the prices are to high and the business times are CRAP?!? I mean seriously. On Saturday only from 11 AM to 4 PM. And the really unfair thing is the pricing 1 or 3 hours, because most swimmers would need a 2 hour ticket. I took my time today and yes, I'd be perfectly fine with a 2 hour ticket. But they don't sell them! Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!

(That is my duffle. It's okay, but the one I want from Chiemsee is even better.)

(http://www.donaukurier.de/storage/scl/dktestimp/news/ingolstadt/1385979_m1t1w600q75v10884.jpg)

Besides that, the Sportbad is really good and new. It has eight 50 m = 54.68 yards lanes and a small pool for water aerobics. It was "empty" today, on every lane were only 2 or 3 swimmers, which is abnormaly low and probably due to the weather. So I got changed, showered and went to the pool where I stood for 2 or 3 minutes just contemplating which lane I should swim and how to get there without making a fool of me. I didn't trust myself that much to actually dive in from a starting block. Call me chicken. By the way it was mostly men on the lanes (2 or 3 woman max), a few more girls were there but they stayed in the aerobics pool though there were no classes. (If you ask me the company which runs the swimming pools in Leipzig needs help!!!)

When I finally was in the water on 'my' lane No. 5 I started with breast stroke. After 25 m I felt my upper arm muscles or better what's left of them. After 15 minutes of breast stroke I felt fine. I needed more or less 2 1/2 minutes for one lane including a small recovery stop at the end of each lane. After twenty minutes I've decided to try backstroke. Back in school it was the easiest way to swim for me. Well, things have changed since then! (Only 20 years, how could I change so much? ;-) I didn't last for even half a lane, than I had to turn around and do breaststroke again, because I just didn't have the strength in my arms!! So, I've tried only legs on my back and ... oh the agony of sharing this, I didn't last for half a lane again!! At least I could keep it up longer than the full backstroke.

On the bright side: even though this swim showed me, that there is a whole lot of work and swims ahead of me I never questioned my goal of doing the Ironman. Wahoo. Actually I like swimming, I like it more than running!

In the end I swam 40 minutes today, which means I swam 800 m = 875 yds. Not bad for the first time, I'd say. I got out of the pool took a long shower and realised ... I need a 2-in-1-shampoo for the swim training. Gosh, this chlorine is torture to my hair!! I got dressed and my hair dried and munched several Oreos while doing it. ;-) Nothing better than Oreos after a swim. Time spend at the pool 1:30 hr, time spend in the water 40 minutes. I'm really slow when I get out of the water, I feel like I do everything in slow motion then.

On my way to the streetcar station I saw her

on her way to go skiing (IN LEIPZIG!!! We haven't had snow like this in a decade or longer!):

In any case I took the streetcar back home (you'd have to be nuts to drive under this conditions) and was back around 3 PM. I washed my swimsuit and cap straightaway (wow, I'm really impressed with myself on this one), hung them and the towel up to dry and got on my couch for a nap. I was fix and foxy (tired, ?) and still am.

I've decided to incorporate swimming into my weekly training schedule, which makes me finally a triathlete! Up until now, I was only running and cycling, but now... Even though I don't use my bike at the moment. Why?!

Well:

(This isn't my bike, but it gives a good impression of the weather we have at the moment. There are still some people using their bike, but they push it instead of riding it.)


BTW, a triathlete swam in lane 6 (his swimming cap was from a Triathlon and he had the body, Yum) and I found a specialized triathlon and swimming store in Leipzig! And now that I saw the splish swimsuits I'm spoiled for speedo and other swimsuit manufacturers. Seriously, everything else is so boring compared to their suits. I NEED A JOB to buy myself lots of splish swimsuits!!

Tomorrow I'll meet with Chris at 9 AM for our long march. In fact it's the first real training (for running) this week, I skipped Thursday too because I wasn't in the mood for it.

Finally I'd like to say: Thank you all for your lovely comments and support!

Keep on swimming or running!