Now, that means absolutely nothing to me now that I’m not working (giggle, giggle), but I bet a lot of you are excited!
On that note, I was updating my HBBC points last night, and let me tell you something–not having to work is doing amazing things for my weekly totals!
Week #1: 18.33 points
Week #2: 19 points
Week #3 (thus far): 31.3 points
In short, I am loving not having to work!! I’m getting my preferred 5-6 workouts in each week and I’m not having to make-do by combining my workout with Tals’ exercise. She gets hers and I get mine. And it is awesome.
Speaking of which, guess what I did last night? I swam for the first time in a very long time! Actually, it was the first time I’ve done any laps since the Iron Girl tri at the beginning of August! Ouch. I’ve made a tentative goal to myself that I’d like to get to the pool at least once per week, all winter. Usually, I try to start hopping in the water around April when I realize tri season is coming and it’s never easy. Of the three tri sports, swimming is my least favorite for sure. I don’t mind it once I’m in the water, but it’s the after effects that I dislike: reeking of chlorine for the next few days, chlorine oozing out of my hair follicles and my hair turning to straw, and the worst? THE LICK TEST.
After you swim (even after you’ve showered), try licking your hand. Weird, I know, but the chlorine smell is INSANELY strong after you do. Seriously, once you lick your hand, you will smell the strongest chlorine scent ever. Sure fire way to identify swimmers in your life–just run up to them and start licking their skin. I swear, they won’t mind!
Now that I’ve gotten that tangent out of the way…..
Anyway, I did experience something at the pool last night that was very new for me. Like I said, swimming is not my strong sport. I can swim all day long, but I’m not fast, I’m not graceful, and I really have no idea what I’m doing. I just kinda slap the water for an hour and call it a day. Whatever, it works.
In light of this, imagine my surprise last night when a man in the lane next to me asked for my advice. My advice on swimming. Did he not just see me floundering around?!
Cindy and I had just finished our last set (we did 3×500), and we were standing in the lane, chit chatting and catching up. The man next to us politely interrupted and asked us for tips on how he could improve his stroke and control his breathing. I literally had no idea what to say that would help. Not only was I surprised that he had asked me for help, but I literally did not know what to tell him! I took swim lessons when I was a kid, but that’s it. I just swim by feel, but I have no idea how to help someone. I told him as much, and was very flattered when he responded with, “Well, you sure look like you know what you’re doing. You swim like a fish!”
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Luckily Cindy was able to give him some jibber jabber that sounded like good words of wisdom. Who knows–maybe she just created the next Michael Phelps!
The whole interchange caught me off guard but made me think. Literally, I always mock my swimming strength and have never even thought twice about my abilities (or lack thereof). In fact, I do this with a lot of things. I never refer to myself as a “runner”; instead, I simply say that I like to run. Same goes for the terms “cyclist,” “triathlete,” or “climber.” I just now realized the only terms that I’m comfortable accepting are for activities that I have been paid to complete (get your mind out of the gutter!) I used to be called a dancer all the time, but that was okay. I was paid to perform at games, etc., and I was paid to teach. I am fine with being called a skier because I am paid to instruct others. Apparently I’ll only accept the terminology when someone else validates it for me. How nuts is that?!
How often do you negative self-talk yourself without even realizing you’re doing it?
Give me three positive terms/labels to describe yourself: GO!
Go enter my Fashletics gift card giveaway!!
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