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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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Dragging a bit
I’ve had a couple days where I’ve been dragging my heels a bit. The current environment is quite stressful, of course, and life doesn’t go on as usual. On Wednesday I wasn’t able to go to the pool or gym with my client and he had already gone on a bike ride in the morning. I ended up getting no exercise with him since it would have been pointless trying to get him out for a walk. Also trying to get him to understand that we can’t do normal things is a bit tricky right now.
I didn’t exercise at all the past few days, so effectively I missed three days of exercise. I could have gone out on my bike yesterday but I just couldn’t motivate myself to go out. Today, I forced myself to go to the pool and had a good swim in the end. It was really quiet there even though it was a warm-hot day with hot easterly winds. I was the only one doing laps for the first twenty minutes there. There were a few others that came during the hour I was there but only one of us per lane and a family in the non-lap lane.
I had a bit of a boost to mental health yesterday due to a new Animal Crossing game being released on the Nintendo Switch. This series is one of my all-time favorites and it was nice to sit down as a family while I started my new town.
I’ve also been inspired by something my brother did on Facebook where he posted a cover of an album that influenced your musical taste every day for ten days with no other information. I’m thinking of doing that here instead but I plan to write about it instead.
I haven’t done anything about my airline ticket as yet. Since there’s no change I’ll be travelling I guess it doesn’t matter too much right now. My idea is to shift my travel dates to later this year or next year instead. Not sure I really want to travel to the US late in the year with elections going on but I will consider it if it works out, I guess. I also have a sim card for AT&T that won’t be getting used now. I hope I can do something to allow use of it later on but I think these things expire within a few months.
Meanwhile I was rather horrified that the brand new first Costco went ahead with its grand opening on Thursday. People lined up around the store twice and it was a jungle there from what I saw from video footage on the news. And it’s still crazy there today. Even if I were interested, I wouldn’t think of going there at this point. Sigh.
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Exercise
I’m still doing my exercise pretty regularly although I did force myself to take a break for a couple of days. Not so much for a needed break as to break up the perfect run of days on the activity app on my watch. It works really well to encourage me to keep moving but I find it really hard to get long runs and then have them broken.
Last Monday I went to the pool to practice my swimming and it all went terribly wrong. Almost nothing was working for me. I felt sluggish and I couldn’t breathe properly and my arm motions were wrong and I couldn’t make it to the end of the 25m lane without stopping…just a bad day at the pool. Then Tuesday I went for my lesson and it went much better. This week I worked on my breathing and I think I got a lot out of it. The adult classes are tailored to what you want/need to learn that was my goal. And there were only two of us that week so we got a lot of time with the teacher.
Since then I’ve been to the pool three times. Two were at my local pool and I practiced on my own both times, managing to swim a full 1000m for each swim. I did have to stop between each lap but I didn’t tire out so quickly and I seem to be getting the breathing a lot better now. I also was given a couple of tips by another person using the pool about my arm movement, which I think helped. Tomorrow I might work on the arm movement a bit more. My other pool time was as a carer with my client, who goes most Wednesdays. I didn’t swim a whole lot but did get in a few laps that went surprisingly easily. I think that helped me regain the confidence lost on Monday. I don’t count the lesson since I had the teacher there the whole time.
Yesterday I wasn’t able to get to the pool due to other commitments so I went out for a bike ride after dinner. I think it had been well over a week since I’d been on my bike and it was great to get out again for a decent ride. I was worried my muscles would have started to weaken but I seemed to do just fine in the end. It wasn’t my fastest ride but I felt I was pretty steady and I didn’t struggle so much riding up hills this time. Maybe that was due to the swimming?
Last night my gluteal muscles were really feeling the exercise. I wasn’t in pain but I was a bit sore. Even today I’m still a bit sore, mostly on my bottom. I think my gluteal muscles are getting the most benefit from my recent exercise…lol. I’m going to swim this afternoon, hopefully before the pool gets crowded after school time. Maybe I can work out some of the soreness while there.
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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.
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Swimming
I get into the pool for free at least a couple of times a week due to my work as a carer. My client does the aqua aerobics class regularly and I have taken lately to walking and swimming while he’s occupied. I do this in the lanes next to the classes so I can keep an eye on his. Some carers stay right next to the clients for almost everything but I find this causes my client to become too dependent on me. Also I find it easier to keep a watch outside of the class. Anyway, I do keep busy while he’s busy, either with him or nearby.
Initially I was mostly just doing lots of aqua walking and that was good. But in more recent weeks I’ve started swimming, or what I consider my close approximation of swimming. I don’t use the proper strokes all the time but I am kind of close. I never learned to swim properly so really need to take a class to learn proper breathing and the proper strokes but I am reasonably competent at moving the water now. Just a bit slow.
The swimming sort of evolved from some movements I was doing in the water with my arms and added the feet along with it. Seems they turned into actual swimming even though I was doing most of the movement in the walking lane. I’ve been working on building up some stamina while swimming and have gotten a lot faster on some of the strokes. I hadn’t been timing my swims but tonight I started seeing how long it took me to swim the length of the pool (25m). The first time I checked I was over a minute but when I put more effort in I would get faster and I had several laps where I managed to get there in about 45 seconds. I was kind of impressed with my progress. I couldn’t sustain this for too long. I might start out going at a good pace but could sustain it for the full 25 m. I guess I started to flag around the last third so I’d end up taking over a minute in the end. Still it feels good to make some progress. My aim isn’t to become particularly fast but enough to feel like I’m not in the way of other swimmers.
My Apple watch updated its system recently and the activity app changed a few things so that it now is able to distinguish strokes while swimming. It doesn’t recognise my butterfly but it does get the other ones right most of the time. Plus it records how fast I got and how long I rest and all sort of interesting information Who knew this watch would be so cool. I don’t regret the purchase at all. :)
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Uncategorized
At the pool
We’ve been having some pretty hot weather recently so I finally got around to buying a new swim suit this afternoon. As a carer, I take a family friend, G, to aqua aerobics on Wednesday evening and sitting in the pool area is pretty uncomfortable at this time of the year. Ironically, the weather cooled today and it was almost chilly this evening by comparison to the last few nights. Anyway, I do have the option of doing the class myself but declined today. I really hate trying to follow a class and feel incredibly clumsy and uncoordinated much of the time. I also find it difficult to keep watch on G because I am too distracted.
Instead I spent most of my time in the walking lane and ended up with a pretty decent workout today. I didn’t find the walking was doing much for my heart rate for quite some time. I eventually realised they had marked two lanes for walking so moved into the lane that was in deeper water. That was somewhat more satisfying and I carried on for some time before adding a bit of difficulty. While it was a walking lane, nobody else was there so I started doing a sort of swimming thing although I didn’t use any particular swimming stroke. I ended up doing a sort of modified breast stroke but changed hand positions so that I was hopefully using different muscles to move through the water. I’m not really able to managed freestyle or even backstroke due to shoulder problems so this worked pretty well for me. I alternated laps of my modified swimming with walking and towards the end did almost all swimming. I moved into the area where the aqua class was in session because G had had some problem and was calling for me. He didn’t actually need me but I stayed there anyway because the deeper end of the two lanes reserved was completely empty. I’ll probably do something similar next week but will move into the aqua area a bit earlier.