Day 274: Aches

I have a new bicycle.

I agonized, and met my husband for lunch, and we made a pro and con list, and decided to buy new. Finding used would be possible, but could have cost a lot in terms of time. So we paid for time, essentially. I will tell more about the bike once I've had a chance to get out on it and really ride. So far, the weather has been ugly: rainy, windy, stormy.

I've had a normal training week, but will be taking tomorrow as my off day. I've had some calf and hamstring pain (always on the left leg; it must be my weak one), and I wanted to rest my leg from the running in advance of Sunday's 10k. But I still went to yoga yesterday, and got up to swim this morning. The swimming is getting exhilarating. It takes much less time to get into a rhythm than it used to, and by the end, today, I felt part-fish, at one with the water. You know when you're watching real swimmers swim, and they look like they hardly need to breathe? That's what I felt like. Not that I hardly needed to breathe, but that the breath came in and out so naturally, despite the membrane of water; I wasn't thinking about it, not at all. That freed me to think a bit more about my kick, which I sense is my weakest propeller right now. I am working to keep a very even and balanced kick going. And I've discovered this tuck, or pelvic tilt (it requires strong abs), that gives me a more aerodynamic feeling in the water, and lowers my head a degree too. Anyway, it was just really a happy place for me this morning: the water. Yes, the water.

I'll even forgive it for being chlorinated and giving me 1980s rocker hair. Yeesh. I'm going for a cut tonight (not short, however, just to trim the frazzled ends). I've noticed that a lot of regular swimmers keep their hair short. This is probably because the chlorine has fried it. (And, yes, I do wear a cap, but it feels too porous. I might need to get a silicone cap instead). Oddly, when I asked myself whether I would give up swimming to keep my hair nice, I realized the answer was no way! Who cares about the hair? Well, once upon a time, I really cared, I really did. Maybe this is one of the pleasures of aging.