Gasping for Air

I did it; I went back to the gym last week.


Nothing crazy. 20 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes circuit training, a little bit of free weights followed by another 15 o 20 minutes more cardio. Twice I did this and it felt great.

Truth be told however, I would never have taken such a bold step on my own. When it’s me against procrastination, procrastination always wins.

My secret weapon was the weather. Oh wait, I said I was being truthful; the kids made me do it. After nearly a month of “holiday fun” with them, school finally beckoned them back last Tuesday. By that evening, we were all bracing for the big snowstorm which we were warned would be followed by tundra type conditions on Friday.  Warnings became reality, which resulted in three long snowdays, followed by a weekend with frozen pipes! 

It would not be an understatement to say, “They were driving me nuts”. We also have my mom’s dog Murphy for two months while she sunbathes in Mexico. (Was that snarky? Good.) Having two young dogs in the house is tantamount to toddlers. The walls were closing in.

Yesterday I was a complete slacker; it was way too cold to even consider going out in my book. Even though it wasn’t much warmer today, cabin fever was rearing its ugly head again.

Knowing my propensity to bore easily, I thought I would switch things up a bit and try something new. Jordie and I trekked down to the Matt Ross Community Center, shelled out 7 bucks a piece (teach us not to be members) and headed to the lap pool.

Holy-heart-pumping-crap…. has anyone swam lately? Our goal was 10 laps, a lap being there and back. After one completed lap the rest were clearly in jeopardy. Really, we were sucking air.

Freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. Ok… you caught me; I did not to do the butterfly, but Jordie did. I substituted it with the dead-man’s float. There were some kids playing in the lane over and I relied on them to create a current for me. A lap is a lap folks! For two of our laps we actually sprinted the length of the pool. Again, I was unable to keep up with my 16-year-old daughter; about 3 quarters of the way down the lane, the water was over my head. I would tread water until Jordie made it back to me then we would sprint back. Can you say “inhaler”?

But we did it; 10 lapperoonio’s and we were two, proud, high-fiving fools.

The drive home was pretty much conversation free. We were both too busy gasping for air!