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Freedom
We are currently in stage three of lockdown. What this means is most businesses are now open and we are that bit closer to normal life. Except it will likely still be a while until we have to stop physically distancing.
Our state currently has 21 cases of covid-19 still ongoing with none in the hospital. None of these were community transmissions so I am feeling safer to be out in the community now. The current cases mostly came from a ship that came into port a couple of weeks ago. The others are people who came back to WA from overseas. All the current cases have been quarantined in a hotel while they recover.
My swimming lessons will be back in session the week after next. I haven’t tried to swim yet even though the pools opened a couple of weeks ago. Once I got notice the lessons were about to restart, I decided to hold off on getting one of the special temporary memberships. At the moment you have to book in to the pool and there are limits on how many people can be at the pool at the same time. I did go to the pool with my client through work but only got in to do walking in the water and didn’t get my head wet. At the time the change rooms weren’t available so it wasn’t ideal. But the weather has been unusually warm for the start of winter so it wasn’t too bad. Now the change rooms are available so it is far more useful even though the weather is still rather warm. (We still have windows open here as it’s not been cold enough long enough to close them.)
I haven’t felt confident enough to even consider going to any of the protests in the city though. I’m not sure how well they did the distancing at the previous ones but I feel it’s just too risky at the moment. I heard today there was a man at the Melbourne protest who was just diagnosed. I hope it hasn’t spread to others who were there. I guess we will find out more in the next week or two.
I forgot to add that the Scientist and I went out to eat at a restaurant on our anniversary (May 22) for the first time since before my birthday. It was a lovely evening and it was good to see restaurants more properly open again.
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Swimming
I’m still doing lots of bike rides although the past couple of weeks has been more limited due to the strong winds blowing. I feel a bit too unsteady when it gusts above 35kph so have done other sorts of exercise.
Our city leisure center was closed for a few months for renovations and reopened last month. Along with that they changed the name of the local recreation programs and relaunched with a special deal of 30 days for $30. This includes pool, spa, gym and fitness classes. Our local center only has the pool and spa but there’s another one not far either. Anyway, I signed up in the middle of the month and started going swimming just about every day for a while. After almost a week I developed a sore next and shoulders and had to take a break from it.
I’m pretty sure this was due to the fact that what I call swimming is definitely not proper form and I think I caused myself a bit of injury after overdoing the wrong methods. So I took a bit of a break and decided that now’s the time I need to learn how to swim properly. I signed up for lessons last week and started on Tuesday.
I have had one forty five minute lesson and already feel a lot more capable although I’m going more slowly than before. I learned how to blow bubbles and do the freestyle stroke properly. Most useful is knowing how to breathe properly which makes a huge difference. The lessons actually give unlimited use of the pool for practice between lessons so once my 30 membership runs out, I’ll still be good. I just won’t have access to the spa. Not that I use it for that long as I find it too hot after a while.
My neck and shoulder were still a bit sore after Tuesday so I took a break on Wednesday. But yesterday I went back and practiced for half an hour. My main thing was trying to get a proper rhythm and to manage to last a full lap. I got in twenty laps of swimming and took in a fair bit of water yesterday. Then today I went back and I already found it easier and my stamina had increased so I could manage a full lap most of the time. Well at least for the first half of my practice. I could feel I was doing it right some of the time and it feel really efficient and much easier on the body. Just that trying to swim continuous laps wasn’t a thing yet. After each lap I’d take a break and try to get my breathing under control. I am getting a bit better at breathing in through my mouth and blowing out bubbles through my nose. But it still feels a bit alien for me. I assume this will get better with time.
So I was taking a break after one of my laps and then a young girl in the next lane said “Excuse me” to get my attention. Then she told me I was a very good swimmer which really took me by surprise. I thanked her and told her I was just learning and then she wished me well and I did the same to her as she is learning too. I was quite touched by this and it really helped my confidence a lot. Of course once I was more self-conscious I started making more mistakes. Although I’m pretty sure that also was due to getting tired. I was trying to reach 750 meters of swimming but then the lane was needed for a real lesson and I decided that must be the warning that I needed to stop and take a break. I’d already been finding it hard to make it all the way through a lap and I wasn’t breathing so well as I had been.
I’m hoping to practice at least two more times before my next lesson but I’m already feeling so much more able than I was. I just wished I’d done this sooner.