Stupid, stupid, stupid

Passing the pain barrier: probably a good thing when it kicks in within ten minutes of starting swimming?

Passing the stupid barrier: probably never a good idea!

Having joined the gym yesterday, I forced myself to use it today, otherwise I would find an excuse and probably another one tomorrow [possibly a better rationalization, given that I would have more time], and then Monday's Body Balance class would be even more of a hurdle than it's going to be...

As the only reason for joining was to get back to swimming [paying monthly means the more times I go the cheaper it gets, rather than a local authority pool which gets more expensive the more times I go (and that is a bus ride away in each direction, so that bumps up the cost pretty quickly)], I hit the pool.

Never let yourself get unfit - it's much more of a struggle doing two lengths without drowning than it used to be!

I struggled my way up to 20 lengths, and then rationalized that if I swam a mile (65 lengths) rather than a kilometre (40 lengths; my usual swimming re-start distance) it would get over that mental 'hurdle'; in the past it's taken me a couple of months to work myself up to doing the extra distance.  Not a huge leap, then, to persuade myself that if I swam 100 lengths, I would be cutting out two psychological stumbling blocks!

I know from walking, that the sooner I do my 'long' walk, the easier it is to repeat it; working my way up to it seems to stress me out more than any physical suffering I cause myself.  So I applied the same logic to swimming: 100 lengths is my chosen distance, and having done it once, I will be able to do it again.

Probably not my smartest decision, but already I'm forgetting those last 20 lengths.

Oh, and that brainwave I had yesterday as a reason for choosing the further gym?  A 20-minute walk home uphill seemed a great boost to my workout; today, not so much.

Not related to our house in France at all, but may well explain why today is not the day when I upload the photos of our beautiful new bedroom!