"Calm Water" by the marvelous Justin Hackworth; prints for sale hereI have been, with varying levels of success, trying to transition from super lazy, non-moving sloth to a girl who exercises with some regularity. For the most part, I feel the following about exercise: hate. There are moments, on a treadmill or an elliptical machine, especially when the iPod is spinning something by The National, when I get the feeling of blissed-out endorphin rush, and I can appreciate a good sweat every now and then, but in general it is, at this phase in the process, hard.
* Sharon Olds, "The One Girl at the Boys Party"
However. Tonight I went swimming and it occurred to me that being in the water is the only activity in which I can feel truly in a groove. Whereas the rhythm of an elliptical machine starts to make me crazy after about 10 minutes, the rhythm of the crawl is hypnotic and smooth and intoxicating in a way that I can only feel in water. As long as I can remember, I have been naturally extremely buoyant -- as in, I probably would not be able to drown even if I wanted to because I can float with my nose out of water without any effort whatsoever. Like, treading water is just a thing to do to keep from getting cold. It's cool when it's not annoying. Therefore, I don't require one of those leg buoys to move smoothly when doing just the arms in a crawl (possibly called doing "pulls"), which is my favorite thing to do. I love to feel my arm muscles burn and stretch out my shoulder joints over and over. I always find it surprising that I am actually happy and content working out when I am in the water.
I have a friend who is a grown man who doesn't ever go in water because he doesn't know how to swim. This I find devastating. Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm sure my mom would remind me of a number of hissyfits on the way to the Cottonwood Heights pool for summer swimming lessons because I was . . . scared, I guess, though I don't remember being afraid of the water, exactly, because we went playing around in the pool almost every day, and our mom's best bargaining threat for good behavior was not letting us go. I can't be bothered to analyze what was really going on in my kid mind with those swimming lessons, but I do remember when we moved to Fresno and joined Clovis Swim Club, that trouble was the usual mixture of embarrassment and knowing I was the slowest, worst athlete in the Olympic-size pool at Clovis West High. We were fortunate kids -- spoiled brats, really -- with a very nice pool in our backyard (the middle one), and that amazing facility in our high school. (Here's proof: Michael Phelps at Clovis West. Even I can't believe that.)
Nonetheless, all that swimming/perceived trauma in my youth certainly left me with a decent skillset of all the strokes and a great love for being in and underwater, as close to the bottom as possible, if you please. I am not great at breaststroke or backstroke, and I have completely forgotten how to do a flip turn, but I am nonetheless really, really happy in the water.
I have a friend who is a grown man who doesn't ever go in water because he doesn't know how to swim. This I find devastating. Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm sure my mom would remind me of a number of hissyfits on the way to the Cottonwood Heights pool for summer swimming lessons because I was . . . scared, I guess, though I don't remember being afraid of the water, exactly, because we went playing around in the pool almost every day, and our mom's best bargaining threat for good behavior was not letting us go. I can't be bothered to analyze what was really going on in my kid mind with those swimming lessons, but I do remember when we moved to Fresno and joined Clovis Swim Club, that trouble was the usual mixture of embarrassment and knowing I was the slowest, worst athlete in the Olympic-size pool at Clovis West High. We were fortunate kids -- spoiled brats, really -- with a very nice pool in our backyard (the middle one), and that amazing facility in our high school. (Here's proof: Michael Phelps at Clovis West. Even I can't believe that.)
Nonetheless, all that swimming/perceived trauma in my youth certainly left me with a decent skillset of all the strokes and a great love for being in and underwater, as close to the bottom as possible, if you please. I am not great at breaststroke or backstroke, and I have completely forgotten how to do a flip turn, but I am nonetheless really, really happy in the water.
* Sharon Olds, "The One Girl at the Boys Party"
5 comments:
sure wish we could still swim in 1441's pool...cb does too
I miss 1441 pool too. I have really good memories in that one. But I am the opposite of you. I love exercise and hate swimming. I would rather run 10 miles than swim 1/2 mile. Why that is, I don't know.
The only thing I like about people finding my blog is that I in turn get to find theirs. Now all we need to do is get Bunny to blog.
What's totally cool is that Alisa's love of swimming has now morphed into the realm of triathlete. Unfortunately she hasn't quite come to grips with the idea yet, but she will.
Hey shmalisa-wish we were still swimming in Tahoe. Idaho has no water to speak of. (see the lovely pesticide canal!) I recognized that poem line, but I think in the link the next to last line of the poem is missing? Do you know what it is?
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