thoughts on the new workout

Day 2 of swimming and yoga...

Tuesday and Wednesday were dead-on-my-feet days, but I did the workout on Tuesday anyway. The swimming was very hard, the yoga was challenging but not difficult -- does that make any sense?

The combination of intense aerobic activity followed by an hour of meditation and stretching is a very good one for me.

Today, I swam 4 laps with much less difficulty than on Tuesday. I realized I am not racing, so slowed down my strokes to work on form and keep my kicking steadier. I did much better this time, especially on the freestyle. My muscles don't give out so much as my lungs can't keep up. I start out taking a breath every 5 strokes, then every 3, then by the time I'm 2/3rds across the pool I have to just keep my face out of the water, because I'm gasping like a beached fish (ha). Still, it went much better this time.

Tuesday's yoga was on a stability ball, today's was on the mat, both were fine. I only completely failed one pose, but my thigh muscles were just beat -- perhaps if I had tried it before swimming it would have been different, but as it was, just couldn't do it. Everything else felt good.

Today's workout was made possible by the Aleve I took around 2PM. It didn't make me feel fantastic, but it did take a substantial edge off. I took some more at 8PM and am feeling creaky and tired but not destroyed, although my hands are killing me.

I hate to take medicines of any kind but I am a regular pill-popper. It's very annoying. It would be less annoying if the pills actually worked better.

I like this workout a lot. I hope I can keep it up. I'd like to build up my stamina in the pool to the point where I can do the Master's swim team. My breathing is so far behind my muscles at this point I think working up to what I want will be less painful than I anticipated. I do realize I've been in incredible pain since Tuesday, but the thing is, I'm not in pain while I'm swimming -- swimming feels good (except the gasping for air part, that sucks.)

I do need a swim cap that will keep my substantial mop of hair dry, though. I hate how it feels after being in the chlorinated pool. I rinse it out, of course, but I don't want to deal with the hassle of a real wash before I dash off to yoga. So, a different swim cap is in order, but other than that -- everything's OK.