Last night I decided: fitness night!! There was a fresh dumping of snow overnight Sunday into Monday, and the temperatures had just risen above nose-falling-off frigid, so it seemed the perfect weather to get out for my first snowshoe of the season, and I had to walk the dog anyways. And the public pool that reopened in my neighbourhood last year runs a "fitness swim" from 9-10 p.m. most evenings. With no other plans, it seemed like a perfect night to burn off the few marshmallows dipped in peanut butter dipped in rice krispies I'd indulged in when I got home from work (these were all Christmas baking leftovers - I finally tossed the marshmallows today - enough already!!!). Caution: don't try this homemade snack lest you want to spend your night in the throes of fitness... Ok anyways, onto the hijinx.
Bailey and I headed out to the local neighbourhood park built around the old landfill site (Jeff and I affectionately call it "the dump park") to get our snowy workout in. I definitely fall down every time I cross country ski, but snowshoes are essentially giant balancing feet, so you think you'd be all set to stay upright, right? Nope. I bailed twice, once going downhill with a little too much enthusiasm (picture windmilling limbs, all four of them) and the other time in a giant unpredictable snowdrift that was inexplicable based on its location and my knowledge of that terrain when there's no snow.... I'm still trying to figure out how a crater formed along the usual walking path :P This drift was so deep the dog (Rottweiler x shepherd) was up to his ears!! Rather than using him as a canary in a snowy coal mine, I just went right into the same spot and suffered the same fate. We both extricated ourselves eventually but shared a look of: "whoa! that was deep!". The tights I'd worn to keep cool since I knew I'd get hot slogging around in all that snow were not waterproof, so the last few steps back to the car were PRETTY chilly as the snow soaked through! Good news - we made it out alive :)
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| Bailey boy |
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| Pink cheeks! |
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| Fun (soaked) tights & snowshoes |
Then it was off to the pool. I said to Jeff as I was leaving "I feel like I'm going to do something stupid. Getting into my bathing suit in a public place and jumping into a communal bathtub is already my worst nightmare." Self-fulfilling prophecy?
1) Arriving at the rec centre, I stood in front of the automatic door and nothing happened. I panicked mildly before locating the actual opening of the door, eight feet to my left. Sigh. Not off to a great start.
2) To mitigate potential future horrors, I asked the guy working the front desk: "I've never been here before, and I'm the type to do something stupid like walking into the men's changeroom, so can you tell me exactly how this works?" He said, "you go into the women's changeroom, and the door to the pool is right through there. It's really easy." Fine. I'll trust you, fella (hint: there were a few more key things he could have mentioned, such as lockers!)
3) The lockers had those crazy pay a quarter, turn the key, key pops out, attach key to self with safety pin systems. A woman in the changeroom noticed me staring at them for a good ten seconds, so I said "do you know how to use these?". She pointed to the instructions, clearly printed on the inside of the door (but the inside of the door? come on!). I slid off my clothes, having already put on my bathing suit underneath (I am a good planner; nothing worse than wriggling into a tight bathing suit under fluorescent lights in a place you've never been before with strangers), worked the quarter-lock system like a pro, pinned my safety pin to myself and I was away to the pool!
4) Without my goggles. Sigh. Back to the changeroom. What? I don't get my quarter back?? I assumed it was like the shopping carts at No Frills. Geez.. I brought my own lock.. can I just use that!?!? Come on City of Guelph. Luckily I had many quarters. Got the goggles. Locker locked again, key pinned to me. Ok.. back to the pool.
5) I hopped into the "medium" speed lane, noticing everyone in every single lane was going exactly the same speed, and having no idea if I'm a fast, slow or medium swimmer. After 6 x 25m laps (which felt great by the way! swimming is basically the best - just the feeling of water, and freedom, and not aggravating my sprained foot or tennis elbows (too badly)), I noticed my lane-mate was standing at the end of the pool. I stood up as I was turning around and said hello and she asked if I could swim closer to my lane divider and only if another person came into the Medium speed area would we need to swim that close together. Yeesh! Pool etiquette I was unaware of!! So I hit the lane divider about 8 times for the rest of the night as I was swimming so close to it to avoid getting all up my neighbour's grill. Small victory: I kicked her ass and covered 750m in 25 minutes while she did maybe half that. ;)
6) I exited the pool feeling like a champ. 750m is the distance I need to do for a sprint triathlon, my summer goal, and I'd done it! In 25 mins! I caught a glimpse of my triumphant self in the mirror in the changeroom and said in my head "looking good girl!". Then realized I'd forgotten underwear to change into. And a toque for my wet hair. Not so well planned after all. Commando home it is.
7) Heading out the door, thinking about how thirsty I was, I suddenly spied a water fountain to my left and made a quick turn to take a drink before heading out into the night. "Wet floor" signs must have taken on some sort of "blend into the background" mode in my brain because I didn't see it, that floor was super wet, and I TOTALLY BAILED! I fell on my outstretched left arm and left knee, and slowly got to my feet. A rec centre worked called out "are you ok?". Someone else said "what happened?" and she yelled "this girl fell!!". Mortification complete. My answer to "are you ok?" was a timid "I don't know" - DAMN my elbow hurt! It didn't get any better overnight, and at my doc appointment that was already booked today, I asked her about the pain and she recommended I get an x-ray since it sounds like I might have a hairline fracture! I'm a walking medical textbook these days! 35 going on 80.
Lesson learned: stay home, don't move. You're a spaz. ;) No, no, just kidding. You know that I didn't sit out the outdoor skating session with my coworkers at lunch today. I got my heart pumping so well that I unzipped my jacket and flapped my arms around yelling "this is so funnnn!!!" - then had to stop because of the pain in my elbow. Victory - I did not fall.
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| Kathryn and I enjoying the outdoor rink at lunch |
The roads iced over around 4 p.m. today as I left the doc's office, so I secured myself safely inside - where I should probably stay indefinitely, but hey.. life's for livin' after all...
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