Water babies
Wednesday 1 May 2002

My hands smell like chlorine. Such an unfamiliar smell. This morning I toddled along to my first aqua aerobics class. I arrived half an hour early and got changed in the tiny little change room full of interesting shaped bodies and then went out and sat by the pool, watching little kids learn how to dive. I have never seen so many painful belly flops in a row, even the swimming teacher was visibly wincing. The warm smell of chlorine was not as alarming as I thought it would be. It did remind me of other horrible indoor pool experiences but all around me everyone was having so much fun I started to relax a little. Slowly the rest of the pregnant mums of various sizes turned up and we got into the water while Mandy, our instructor, smiled down at us from the side of the pool. There was one other new girl besides me (we even had matching bathers) and Mandy smiled especially kindly at us. She started jogging on the spot. I thought, this is ok! I can do this! And we all started jogging on the spot in slow motion through the water. After about ten minutes of different kinds of jogging and twisting and I was puffing and groaning, Mandy said "Ok! That's the end of the warm up! Let's get into it." Eep! I was doing ok until we were given foam barbells which we had to push through the water while we did star jumps or twists or rolls or bicycles around in circles.

I just can't control my feet

When I ticked the "I am not confident in water" box on my form which I gave the instructor at the beginning I thought that perhaps she might realise that that meant that I am not particularly confident in water, and a couple of times I truly pondered how embarrassing it would be if I had to be hauled out and given CPR. It would be especially embarrassing if it was during the "relax and float, just be with your baby" segment of the class when I spent the whole time struggling not to disappear under the water - I am afraid that bonding with the child-inside didn't get much of a look in. During one particularly uncoordinated maneuver I realised we were dancing along to Blame it on the Boogie and the words "I just can't, I just can't, I just can't control myself" kept ringing over and over in my water filled ears. How fitting as I slipped and bobbed, trying to do some crazy high kick forward followed by a high kick back only to find myself splashing around madly trying to regain my footing. Graceful I am not. Fit I will be.

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