Phew. The fine-toothed comb and magnifying glass showed no signs of impetigo, or swimmer’s itch, or athlete’s foot, but my gawd, I spent a good 40 minutes freaking out about such nasty infectious germs crawling all over me and my body.
Today. After work. I went aqua jogging. In the pool. The public pool.
Have I mentioned that I have a bit of a, uhm, fear of germs? And did you know that pools are a cesspool of germs? Yes, yes, they use chlorine to combat the germs, I know that, but is it really enough when you’ve got kids peeing (oh they so do) and the other in them? I’m a little dubious. Especially when I’m facing the likes of crypto, a germ that causes diarrhea and that can survive for days even in properly chlorinated pools, and Athlete’s Foot which you can’t see, but it’s so crawling all over the pool deck and all through the change room. But, desperate times, desperate measures. (I just had to make sure I duct taped my mouth shut was all!)
My favourite iron chickie and I met at the pool after work so she could teach me how to properly aqua jog … and save me if need be. It wasn’t so bad at first, I was keeping my chest back, looking forward, tucking my pelvis, just like a real runner should, and I was thinking I can do this, no problem. But then, she made me take the floaty belt off, and suddenly I was all on my own. Oh crud. When I hit the deep end, it was as though I wasn’t moving. I could see the edge of the pool, I yearned for the edge, but I wasn’t getting to that edge. It didn’t matter how fast I jogged my arms, or how hard I kicked my feet back, or how much my eyes pleaded to get me there, my body, it seemed, was not budging. And then finally, after what seemed like an hour, I was within an arm and a half’s length from the edge and I could bare it no more, my arms reached, my legs kicked up, and whew, I was there. My heart was pounding. My lungs were huffing and puffing. My legs were jelly. And I still had to go back the other way! This, my friends, was no easy workout.
And apparently, not only will aqua jogging help in the recovery process of those damn stress fractures that are trying so hard to sideline me, but it could very well also help me to become a better runner by increasing my awareness on form. In your face stress fractures!
TONIGHT’S AQUA JOG:
- 5 p.m. BG before 4.7 (granola bar, no bolus)
- Temp. basal: -50 per cent
- Time: 40 minutes
- 6 p.m. BG after: 4.1
However, it didn’t take long to discover there’s pretty much no way of keeping my insulin pump dry in the pool. Oh but I tried. I thought for sure if I just clipped it to the top of my bathing suit, it’d be fine. Yeah, no. The second I was in the deep end, with the water up to my chin, it was soaked. Which theoretically shouldn’t be a bad thing as it’s supposedly waterproof, but I was advised not to shower with it on, so I’m thinking it’s probably not all that waterproof. Secretly, I hope it’s not … my pump’s all scratched to hell, it’d be nice to have a sparkly new one don’t you think 😉
Do you fear the pool or embrace the pool?
The pool is awesome Katie, especially the reward of soaking in the hot tub after the workout 😉 just saying
Me, I embrace the pool 🙂 One just needs to shower THOROUGHLY afterwards … because kids DO … I remember!! 🙂 Also, for good measure, I do the dry sauna AND the wet sauna. I figure that steam has gotta kill creepy crawlies, at least loosen their grip, and I flush’em with the COLDEST shower I can find.
I’m glad, but not surprised, you are attacking stress fractures with your usual “in your face” gusto.
Try not to scratch in public 🙂
love it!!!