solace in swimming

A friend recently pointed out to me that my blog is generally very predictable. To be extra special today, I'll combine two or more predictable topics.

First, I went swimming this morning...something that I've been looking forward to for two days. I haven't really been keeping up with my non-existent exercising regimen, so I was pretty happy when I jumped into the pool Tuesday morning. A few hours later, I received an email informing me that the pool was closed until further notice due to 'mechanical failure'. I was slightly disturbed and my brain went into hyperdrive...did they OD the place with chemicals? Did the filters stop working? Did I ingest something potentially deadly and the gym staff neglected to inform me to avoid widespread panic? Wednesday morning, it all became clear to me. Apparently the bulkhead broke (or something), and now the pool was standard 50M long course. Of course, this made me really excited and desperately wanting to try out the longer distance. The last time I swam in a LC pool was back in undergrad. The really awesome thing about swimming 50M rather than 25M is the feeling of covering more distance and for longer periods.

In all, it pretty nice just to have a change of pace once in awhile. I did about 2,300M total, a 500 warm-up, 300 swim, 100 pull, 100 kick. Then three 500s and a 300 cool-down. The emphasis was on my stroke and not my turns, which is pretty awesome. It also means that I can breathe better because I'm not turning every few seconds. I only attempted 50M backstroke, and it was a killer. Otherwise, I never felt like the other end was miles away. The only negative aspect was the the water temperature was about 10 degrees hotter than normal (maybe something else did malfunction), which makes cold-blooded creatures like me overheat and struggle to breathe (something that I do normally). Other than that, everything was just peachy. I'm still working on consistency, kicking, and futile attempts at butterfly. Apparently the kicking wasn't so good because I got out of the pool barely able to lift my arms over the head but walking just fine. It's so instinctive for me to bring my kick down to a minimum (5% capacity) over longer distances and power my way through with my arms. Maybe I'll increase the pace the last 100 or so, but the bulk of my work-out is upper-body.

After my sublime watery experience, I then went to King of Prussia for a suit. Apparently my body did some massive reconfiguration in the last three years (when I got my last suit), and I absolutely refuse to go to any more interviews in my fugly and ill-fitting pink-dotted black suit. Also, interviews matter a lot more to me now than back then. Times change. Circumstances change. People change. But back to my suit from the Limited. Is it possible for me to wear a size 8 jacket and size 2 skirt? Yes, but then I look completely unbalanced. I went up to a size 4 skirt in order not look like a complete upside down wedge. Side note: apparently bebe dresses fit me pretty well. Big boobs. Sizeable ass. Hopefully small everywhere else. I'll go to bebe again if I ever want to audition for Tramp-a-lot or Hoes in the Hood.

After wandering around looking at bags and trying on shoes (two areas which my brain is just not wired for), I gave up and went to indulge in Quantum of Solace with ugly sexy Daniel Craig. TBC.