So, yesterday's blog got me thinking. I went to the gym and worked out there - muscle building, core strengthening - workout to make me feel really 'on it'. As I moved onto the last machine - one that makes me feel like a really hard core gym bunny - I glanced out of the window and there was the lovely pool. The blue, sparkling pool.
I went back yesterday evening to take Caitlin for her swimming lesson and ended up in the outdoor pool myself. After everything I said, I went and braved it - 'what the hell'.
It was spine-tingling, feet dropping off, hair standing on end, freezing. The first length was just an exercise in remembering to breathe without getting a lung full of water. Controlled breathing - not on your nelly. It felt like someone had punched me flat in the solar plexus. Two lengths later I had gone completely numb and could begin to enjoy it. Well, enjoy is probably not the right word. And this is what led me to write this today. What is the word for enjoying something after the event? As I swam the lengths with blue feet (and probably blue lips) I could hear my mother in my head saying 'It's lovely when it stops'. And this is the point. Once I had swum the requisite 16 lengths (the least I can decently swim before getting out - although I prefer to do double that) and sprung out of the water and dashed to the hot shower, I felt really good.
Nothing can ever beat that lovely glow from feet upwards. It reminds me of how I used to go early morning (6am) swimming in the sea with my family in Sussex and then have a cooked breakfast on the Sussex Downs. Bacon and eggs cooked in the open air- nothing beats it. Cold water swimming boosts the immune system and has many other amazingly positive health benefits. And it gives me an adrenaline rush like no other exercise.
My mum was right It IS lovely when you stop, and that's what keeps me going back.
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