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I’ve always loved swimming. 

I’m not the best swimmer, and I really didn’t even learn how to swim until I was 15, but I still love it.  Still though, I have a love/hate relationship with the pool.

My parents have a pool, and when I lived at home I would swim constantly, except for when people were over, or when my parents had one of their huge summer parties.  When I was a member of the Y, I never used the indoor pool, despite the fact that I would have loved to be able to swim in the autumn and winter.  My old apartment had a pool, but if my landlady was home or if someone was working on the yard (it was a basement apartment), then I wouldn’t go anywhere near it.  This apartment has a pool, but all last summer I never used it.

Why?  Well, I think it’s the same reason alot of people don’t like the pool, or beach, or whatever:  I didn’t want to be seen without my shirt in.  My flabby stretchmarked gut, my moobs, my pale skin, I thought all of that was best left under the shirt.  I didn’t want to be seen, I didn’t want to be looked at, I didn’t want to be made fun of, etc…etc…

With that said, the apartment pool has opened for the summer, and yesterday, I went swimming!

And yes, I took my shirt off.

That isn’t saying that the gut, moobs and paleness aren’t there anymore, and it’s not to say that I’m proud of my appearance right now, but I am learning that I need to worry less about what people might think and do what I want to do.  I’m also realizing that more often than not, those people are probably more concerned about how THEY look then about how they look. 

So yeah, I have alot of work to do, but I think I can now add swimming to my workout routine, and be okay with it.  Plus, I like the smell of chlorine, is that weird?

221 comments…

…110 minutes and 30 seconds of cardio…

…HOLY CRAP!

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Another #amerryworkoutpledge down, WOOHOO!

I just completed my portion of the challenge, and I think it’s safe to say that my ass is officially kicked.  I ran for last months challenge but wanted to change it up a bit for this month, so I went with the exercise bike.  I usually only do 10-15 minutes at a time on the bike, so this would definitely be…different.

All in all, it wasn’t that bad!  My ass hurts, which was expected, and my legs feel a bit like jello, but it was a good experience and it went by really fast!  I still feel like I was cheating on running though, but I’ll get over that, it’s good to have a nice mix

I completed the challenge and rode 27.6 miles.  Is that a lot?  I honestly have NO IDEA.  I don’t have alot of biking experience so I don’t know what to gauge it against.  It’s more than a marathon worth of riding though, so it can’t be that bad

And like before, here is my sweaty after pic…

Again, sexy, right?  The bike beside me is the one I used for the challenge.  The people in the background are, well, people in the background

HOW DID YOU DO?

Some of you are in the process of completing the challenge, others are completing it tomorrow or over the weekend or whatever.  It’s all awesome regardless, and I want to know how you did!  Once you have finished, let me know the following:

• Type of activity completed
• Mileage (if you did the bike or treadmill, for example…)
• URL of your challenge followup (if you have a blog and do a follow up post)

I want to gather all of this information and do a followup post with everyones information later, and I don’t want to miss anyone   In the meantime, you can follow everyones progress on twitter!  Look for the #amerryworkoutpledge hashtag!

I’m having a lot of fun with this challenge and I hope it continues to grow and travel through the blog community.  You guys are awesome!

And now, I need a nap…or at least dinner   Have a great evening!

HOLY CRAP!

You all certainly stepped up the plate, huh?  The comments have been tallied up and this edition of #amerryworkoutpledge will be: (insert drumroll)

110 minutes and 30 seconds!

That equates to 221 comments! Holy crap, much?!?!

I was worried that I hadn’t given enough time for the comments to accumulate, but yeah, that definitely wasn’t an issue!  Granted, myself and a few others may have chimed in a bit with a few extra comments, but it’s all in good fun, right?  Don’t hate me  

Just like before, a TON of people have jumped on board too.  That is so great!

I’m still kind of torn as to how I want to go about this.  I love my running, obviously, but I sort of also want to try something different.  With that said, I think I’ll try biking this time around.  I’ve never really done anything on the bike for longer than 30minutes, so this will be an experience.

My workout begins at 4:30. When are you doing yours?

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! 

And remember, do what you can, and be careful!  No injuries allowed