Monday, January 13, 2014

take our sorrows swimming

Swimmer gocco screen print in olive by the wonderful Kate Pugsley on Etsy.

Graham and I often take Dulcie swimming on Sundays if I'm not working.  The pool we go to has a shallow baby pool, where we spend most of our time, as well as a pool for swimming lengths, albeit a pool with a shallow and an even-shallower end.  Yesterday I left Dulcie splashing about in the baby pool with Graham and set about swimming a few lengths.  After 1.5 lengths I felt like I couldn't go on, with no juice left in my limbs, but I persevered, took my time and ended up managing ten lengths.  I felt like I had swum the Channel... only without the sense of achievement, i.e. not good!  Graham was concerned I was about to keel over/die.  I must say, I wasn't entirely unconcerned myself!  It was a far cry from my pre-heart-failure days when I would generally swim 30-plus lengths and once even swam 112 (I think) which was what I had worked out was a mile, but still, ten difficult lengths was better than nothing.

I have a really difficult relationship with physical exercise.  My heart makes exercise really hard and unpleasant, but also makes it even more important, I suppose.  I'd love to have a regular activity that I could go and do on my own/focus on, but exercise can completely wipe me out and leave me unfit to do the things I NEED to do, like push Dulcie home from nursery in her buggy or even just wrestle her onto the floor to change her nappy or lift her into her chair for dinner.  On bad days, chopping vegetables can be too much, so I'm wary of tiring myself out too much when going home for a lie-down just isn't an option.  Dulcie can't exactly make her way home on her own.  Evening exercise could be a good option, I was thinking, as hopefully I'd be recovered by the following morning and could spend the rest of the evening sitting in front of the telly if needs be, but then transport and safety becomes an issue, for this pool at least.

Once I get a car (that is the plan, hopefully) the green light will be on for evening outings to the gym/pool, but the car issue would be a whole other blog post of its own...  Oh dear.

2 comments:

  1. Well done for persevering! I wish I had your determination - despite having a car I generally spend my evenings slumped on the sofa, enjoying the peace and quiet...

    Speaking of car, my drive home from work today was of the white-knuckle variety, icy roads and strong winds turned my routine trip into quite an adventure... I was very happy to reach my house in one piece. Hope the weather is not quite so Arctic in your neck of the woods :)

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    1. One of my worries about getting a car is that it will make me less active. All the hellish walks home from nursery are very unpleasant and don't give me any sense of achievement (just pain and tears usually!) but at least it means I HAVE to do exercise a few times a week - Dulcie wouldn't get home if I didn't. It's easy to SAY I'll use the car to drive myself to the pool, but I certainly wouldn't want to be heading back out there on a night like tonight. I don't think our weather is as scary as yours, mind you, just cold and wet and dark and miserable and... getting very boring now!

      Stay safe (and warm and dry if you can) x

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