1. Landon is doing great with his new daycare. He was a little clingy Tuesday morning, and then cried on Wednesday morning, and that is SO hard. I knew he liked it because on that same morning he was being fussy and irritable while I was getting dressed, and I asked if he was ready to go to daycare. He immediately said yes! and ran to the laundry room to bring me his shoes. I held on to that memory when he dissolved into tears at drop-off 30 minutes later. But - and this is the happy part - when I picked him up yesterday, he yelled "Mama!!" and ran over to me with a huge smile. And then instead of wanting to climb in my arms and leave, he grabbed my hand and showed me all around his room. I saw the yellow buses, the windows to look outside, and his lunch box and water bottle. It was adorable. He said bye bye to his friends and one little girl said "Bye Bye Lan-an!" as we walked out. He had another great day today and I'm just so happy with New Center.
2. I swam this morning! I've lost all my endurance and I only did about 1,000 yards (I know that may sound like a lot to non-swimmers, but that used to be our warm-up every day in high school), but it felt so good. I thought I'd feel awkward and out of sync but my body felt just as at home in the water as it always did. Motherhood and my year of suburban living resulted one surprise- in the past when I've jumped back in the pool after years off, it's been my arms that die the quickest while my legs have remained pretty strong. This time, my arms felt fine and my legs were a pathetic quivering mess. I think it's due to carrying around my 30-lb. Landon and no longer walking around the UT campus or the city of Chicago. It was depressing to realize how much leg muscle I've lost. But still, I swam. And it wasn't as bad as I feared. And I think I'm going to try Really hard to make it a semi-regular thing. It's fun to remember how happy the water once made me.
(Third Bonus Happy: Project Runway is back! And Top Chef! It's almost too much at once but I loooove those shows.)
(Friday Morning Not So Happy: Landon cried, a lot, when I dropped him off this morning. Five days is a lot for the first week. I know he's happy there, but maybe he's starting to think there's never a day he just stays home like he used to. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and our big plans for our first ever playdate, exploring a new park, and just hanging out.)
Fugs & Pieces, November 22, 2024
1 hour ago
Great to be back in the water isn't it - there's a freedom I know there that isn't anywhere else. It's really conducive to thinking.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious that you measured your swim in yards - how is your pool measured? Is it 33 1/3 yards? Are most pools in Texas measured in yards? Is the 50m - Olympic standard common? What do elite swimmers train in most?
Our standard pool size in NZ used to be 33 1/3 yards or metres (depending on the era they were built), but now they tend to be converted to 25m - long enough for lengths, cheaper to run, and there's likely to be only one Olympic-length pool in a city.
There's also an expansion of "fun swim" all age swimming areas where adults and kids can play under water slides/ riverwaves - to get people active even if they can't swim lengths.
I'm getting back into swimming myself, doing 1km as my "baseline" - 40 lengths of a 25 m pool (if I'm really knackered, then 20 lengths is the minimum, but if I've got that far then I usually press on to at least 30-32 - half a mile)
The goal is a 750m open water swim in February. I'm finding it really helps to have someone else to train with - every Sunday morning at 830 in our case. It's got me there when I wouldn't otherwise go!
Hi RJ,
ReplyDeleteOur standard pools are 25 yards long. An Olympic size pool is 50-meters x 25-yards. The lanes are oriented the long way (50 meters) for the summer Long Course season which runs through the summer, and then the short way (25 yards) for the Short Course season which runs from Fall to Spring. So our national championship meets are Short Course Yards in the Spring and Long Course Meters in the Summer. I always detested Long Course because my flip turns and off the walls were the best parts of my race and I lost half my walls when the pool doubled in size!
Our neighborhood has a gorgeous, year-round heated, Olympic size pool. It is about 2 minutes from my house and I have NO excuse to not go a few mornings a week. My problem is that I won't push myself without a coach or training partner present, but any exercise is better than none!
I'm not a swimmer at all but this made me want to swim. I love swimming but I never did it competitively! Congrats on getting back in the pool :)
ReplyDeleteI love Project Runway!! SO excited it's back! :)
ReplyDeleteWhew, that's been my past week of daycare too. And not only did Cora flip out at being at the new daycare, now she's flipping out at being left at the old daycare too. Too much change for a little kid. Sucks. I know she has fun though, just like Landon does, once they get over the initial freak-out.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to swim again this week too! I was never a good swimmer or anything, but I used to swim a mile a few times a week, and it's one of my favorite work-outs.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, keep it up!