Aqua Fit Part 3

I have now accepted that the foot is taking ever longer to get better and decided to regularly attend classes in attempt to stave off the boredom of just pumpung iron (!) in the gym and swimming lengths in the pool.

Monday saw me at a pilates class. I bumped into a fellow runner and ex-work colleague who remarked that all runners end up at pilates and, as fit as we may feel, pilates really sorts out the men from the boys - very true. The class was tough. The teacher is very probably in her sixties, fit, toned and relentless. I left after an hour of pulling, pushing and stretching, tired but elongated and happy.

Tuesday I decided to return to aqua fit hell. The third teacher in as many weeks put us through paces that I didn't even know I had. She reminded me of Tigger on a particularly bouncy day and had us pool running and scissor-legging our way through 3/4s of an hour of particularly hard work out.

Thursday I was back. Thinking that it couldn't have been quite as hard as I had remembered, I thought I would put in a 3/4 hour workout and swim a mile before starting work. A demented Tigger on a VERY bouncy day again had us pool-running and working out to the point of collapse (or was that just me). I managed a few lengths of the pool afterwards but only enough to prove that I could.

I can honestly say that I am so over my disdain for myself at having to stop running and start aqua fit. By Friday I could only just drag my sorry arse to the gym and today (Sunday) I am only just getting over the aches from a weeks hard class attending.

These workouts may look easy but that is the last word I would ever use to describe them. Core strengthened, water resisted and shame faced I may be but I will never look at classes the same way.

And I might even learn to enjoy them.

Sport Relief

I feel bad about my last post.

There is nothing wrong with Aqua fit but there is plenty wrong with my attitude towards it.

I went again on Tuesday.  There was a different teacher, which was a bit of a shock, as it was the guy who teaches my daughter swimming on a Thursday evening.  The class was very different.  The other ladies of a certain age were a bit taken aback by his approach to aqua fit.  More of a synchronised swimming approach with a bit of fit thrown in.  I had a great time and despite feeling a bit embarrassed at having the same swimming teacher as my daughter will be back again next Tuesday.

The point is that I am having to change my attitude towards my fitness and why I keep at it.  Which brings me onto Sport Relief and my one mile run with my daughter on Sunday.  This is the first time that we will run together (apart from our training runs in preparation), or should I say, she runs ahead and I bring up the rear without even trying to keep up with her.  It makes me feel warm inside to be out with my daughter.  It also makes me feel warm inside to be raising money for charity for the first time.

And, I'm not even worried that it's only a mile.  After the last few months of agony my foot is beginning to repair.  I am so grateful that I promise I will never again moan about not being able to run.  There is a certain synchronicity about this injury.  A reason that I had to look at my attitude towards my fitness.  A reason that I ended up in aqua fit with ladies of a certain age.

And, the truth is, it has done me no harm at all.  I feel that I am a better and more humble person for it.

And then there's aqua-fit

So you know it’s bad when you find yourself in at the deep end, surrounded by ladies of a certain age doing deep-water aqua fit aerobics.

These last few weeks have been very difficult.  I have attempted to withdraw from the Brighton marathon but, so far, have received no reply except an email to say I could defer entry to next year and get £15 off the 2011 entrance fee, as long as I email them before a certain date in April.  I am still waiting for a reply to the deferral email.  At the same time I have received an email inviting me to join the YMCA’s 20^th 10k and fun run.  Last year I entered, trained and then couldn’t take part because what I thought would be a small operation turned into something requiring 5 stitches.  This year I would like to enter but I’m not sure my foot will be up for it. 

There is also the race for life that I would love to do, the Newham Classic 10k when I can run with Olympians in the new Olympic park and that’s not to mention the Great North Run that I didn’t run and the Milton Keynes half that I wanted to enter and didn’t because I was training for Brighton.

I’m trying to reach a point of equanimity.  A plane of existence where all of these disappointments do not touch me but the problem is I usually reach that point by running. 

So, now I am training in the gym.  I lift weights and row, I exercise on the elliptical and wave machines and any combination of non-impact trainer so that I don’t lose fitness and don't make my foot worse.  

And I join a class full of women of a certain age doing deep-water aqua aerobics. 

Ah me.  It had better be worth it.