Splishy sploshy splutter

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I had told myself, as part of Janathon, I would go swimming for the first time in 25 years and as the end of Janathon is nigh, it was about time I did as I was told. So last night, I booked myself onto this morning’s body pump class at the gym in town, with the intention of going swimming after.

I did body pump a few times in London but the system there is that you have to ring and book 24 hours in advance and you also have to ring at 6:30am, as otherwise it’d be fully booked by 7, so I pretty much gave up trying to do the classes there but here you can book online up to a week in advance. Result.

Body pump was great. I haven’t done it for a few years and didn’t do it very often then and so I didn’t know what I was doing but the instructor was very helpful and told me which weights to use for each track and after the 45 minutes were up, my arms were wobbling and shaking like a blancmange that’s been bought a Rabbit for Christmas.

I wasn’t entirely sure if wobbling and shaking was very conducive to a successful swim, taking into consideration I haven’t been swimming for 25 years but I was here and I’d told myself I was going swimming, so went swimming I did.

Well, kind of. I looked at the lanes and the first one said slow lane but it looked very narrow and there were already three people in it and it said to swim clockwise and so I went down to the end and got in the pool and swam. In a splashing around and kicking and trying to propel myself forward kind of way. There was a woman in front of me doing breast stroke and I was attempting a front crawl and I think I kept splashing her and when we got to the end she stopped and I said sorry, I don’t really know what I’m doing and she said she was sorry she was going so slowly and I said I haven’t been swimming for 25 years and don’t know pool etiquette and she said well, this is the slow lane but it’s not really big enough for more than one person and she went into the other lane where there weren’t any people and I carried on in the slow lane where there was a man doing breaststroke and I attempted to do breaststroke but I kept sinking and so I carried on with my splishy splashy front crawl thing and there was another girl doing front crawl but gliding gracefully through the water and I got to the end and wondered if I could do another length and thought I can’t give up after two lengths, it’d hardly be worth getting wet and so I kicked and splashed my way down to the end and back up again but I couldn’t make it all the way to the end and I was in the deep end and kept sinking, so I doggy paddled over to the side and made my way up to the end and got out and got dressed and then went to Caffe Nero and had a hot chocolate and a red pepper and smoked Italian cheese panini.

So, today’s Janathon was a triathlon of cycling, body pump and swimming.

I am hardcore.

Stats (cycling to and from the gym)
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 30 minutes
Speed: 10mph
Calories: 161

Body pump
Time: 45 minutes
Calories: 400

Swimming
Lengths: 4
Calories: 80

Hot chocolate
Calories: 280

Red pepper and smoked Italian cheese panini
Calories: 412

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