Melissa and I are beginning to make better use of our nearby YMCA pool, as both of us stand to benefit from resistance exercises in the water while I am working to improve my swimming form and endurance. Its hours vary from day to day in the week, closed on Sunday. We've gone various times, and accordingly the pool was either crowded with seniors, relatively empty, or crowded with little children having swimming lessons. Although I enjoy water walking...forward, backward, and sideways...with Melissa, my main activity there is swimming laps. I have a snorkel I've yet to use, which should facilitate my breathing while I improve my form for better endurance as I work on increasing my workout distance. As we are now rushing in northern Florida through the spring season into our typically very hot and humid summer, going to the pool meshes well with the weather. In swimming, you just don't get the kind of racing events that benefit the general public in running/walking, so my progress will always be a more personal kind of thing: no links in my blog articles to websites posting swimming results! Ultimately, we should be able to settle on a consistent time, two or three times per week, when the pool is relatively empty and we can make good use of this great resource, just one mile down the road from our home...
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Laurie swims there quite often. In the apartment complex where we live there are 4 swimming pools, my husband swims laps in the 25m pool and I swim in one of the smaller ones. I only swim breast stroke as my shoulders can't endure the rotation involved in the crawl. It's such a lovely, calming exercise for me because I swim right at sunrise when I have the pool all to myself and it's nice and quiet (except for all the birds). My husband uses a mask and snorkel when he swims his laps. For myself, I love snorkeling in the ocean, but not so keen on doing it in the pool. It doesn't go well with the breast stroke. But now we're getting into our winter so I've put away my swim suit (I only swim when the water temperature is at least 80F) and taken out my hiking gear. Time to go cassowary spotting!
ReplyDeleteI had a much easier time figuring out how to use the snorkel...the main issue was pinching my nose to keep from inhaling water through it, but that wasn't hard. The pool's been pretty busy and full, with the seniors and the kiddies. I remember Laurie using it for laps back around 2011 when I tried swimming in it while recovering from a strained IT band during marathon training. I'm an awkward swimmer, but maybe with the snorkel I can get my form down better. Watch out, those flightless birds can get temperamental if they don't see you coming, I hear.
ReplyDeleteI am so incredibly fortunate to live here where I can go hiking in the rainforest and encounter these truly majestic birds. At this time of year we are in there about 3 times a week in an area where we seldom encounter other people, but where we now meet up with a cassowary (often with chicks) several times a season. While we never interact with them, I do speak softly when they get up very close just to make the cassowary feel that there's nothing exciting going on here. And luckily we have never had one get upset with us as, like you, I understand they can get pretty ferocious. I feel it's a real privilege to be able to share a rainforest track with these big fellows.
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