As I wrote yesterday, I’ve had the winter blues a little this week. I had a couple of good workouts this week, but this morning I just couldn’t make myself get out of bed. I chose the extra sleep.
All day, this bugged me. I didn’t feel like I’ve done my absolute best this week. I want to keep the 100 pound momentum going. So for some reason I got an itch to swim 1 mile tonight at the gym. Why 1 mile? No idea. Last time I swam was about 50 pounds ago, and I made a video of it here. I had JUST started exercising and it was probably my 3rd day at the gym. I was a competitive swimmer growing up, so I always felt good in the water. But my endurance last time was really poor. I put 2 swimming-related items on my 101 in 1001 list: swim 1/2 mile and swim 1 mile.
So all day at work, I was psyching myself up for a date with the pool. Hubs had to work tonight and I didn’t have any other plans, so there was really no excuse for me NOT to go. I remembered again how I have never regretted a workout, and made myself go.
The gym pool is 25 meters (not 25 yards as some are). This means that it is a little under 65 lengths of the pool for 1 mile. Considering I wanted to start and end on the same end, I decided to do 66 lengths. I figured I’d take it slowly and just go as far as I felt comfortable.
My biggest concern was remembering which lap I was on. I decided since it was 33 laps (2 lengths per lap) I would just count down from 33. So 2 lengths for 33, 2 lengths for 32, and so on.
I did a combination of freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, one armed butterfly and kicking with the kickboard. I wore my heart rate monitor and tried to do intervals as best I could, and actually think I did okay!
52 minutes and 25 seconds. That’s how long it took me to swim 1 mile.
It’s incredible to be 354 pounds and have this kind of endurance. To some, this might sound braggy, but I honestly don’t care. I am damn proud of the work I’ve put in, and this is a non-scale victory that reminds me even after a crummy-feeling week that I have achieved something.
In just over 52 minutes I turned the entire perspective about the past week around.
Don’t ever accept yourself for less than what you are. Ever.
