Gym

[jack]

I signed up for the gym, and went swimming, although I'll have a proper induction on Friday.

It feels really good to have swum for an hour, and really good to think "that's plenty, I don't have to push myself absolutely as far as I can, I can leave now, have an evening of other stuff, and come again later in the week, even if only for half an hour."

I swam 65 lengths -- does anyone know if they're 20m or 25m? 25m is the standard, but I can't judge if the pool is shorter because I usually swim at Jesus green. Fitocracy says "yay".

It's ever so strange being in public without my glasses. I can see people, but I can't see faces, so I can't tell if someone is looking at me, so everyone seems very generic, I feel obliged to plaster a goofy grin on my face in case anyone looks at me and thinks I'm scowling because I didn't realise, and it's easy to stare at people I'm thinking "is that a fuzzy pink blob or a person" when I'm completely visible to them.

Comments

[liv]

Wow, yay you! I am so impressed you joined the gym and didn't get put off because other life stress suddenly appeared. And seriously impressed that you just jumped in and swam 65 lengths. I find about 30 is as many as I can do without getting all wobbly, and that's after quite a lot of working on fitness and stamina. Yay swimming!

[pseudomonas]

Suggestion: do not ask "are you a fuzzy pink blob or a person", on the basis that if they are a person they may not be delighted.

[jack]

ROFL. Thank you, tact consultant! :)

FWIW, in my limited experience, people also look at you oddly if you go up to "swim clockwise" signs and ask if they're a person :) Possibly the right question is "are you a person", and assume that if they don't react, they're not?

In fact, I just avoided swimming/walking into anything whether it said it was a person or not, and that seemed to go ok :)

[pseudomonas]

I think one tactic might be "Hello", and if they don't react, they're either not a person, or a rude person who can be ignored with impunity.

[jack]

Or perhaps a brief nod, so every time you walk past a bollard people don't look round and wonder who you're saying hello to? :)

I'm also going to buy a technical solution, ie. prescription goggles :)

[mair_aw]

https://twitter.com/GreensCambridge suggests 25m.

I'm impressed you swam 65 lengths, impressed you swam 65 lengths and kept count, and impressed you didn't get bored (or did you?)...

[ceb]

Ooh, what's your fitocracy name? (I am cormorant)

[naath]

It's 64 lengths to the mile (there used to be a sign with this information, but now there isn't; that's the extent to which I remember it).

I have prescription goggles that I picked up cheap off the internet, I forget where.

(very useful today aren't I...).

[jack]

Oh, yay, you found me.

[jack]

Oh, cool, thank you! I remember the 64 figure because when I was young, Dad and I used to go swimming, and try to count lengths off in distance, and 40 was 1k and 64 was 1m.

But I didn't feel as tired as I expected, so I wondered maybe the length was shorter than 25m.

[naath]

Heh, I usually get bored of swimming before I get tired of it; maybe I swim too slow?

[jack]

Oh, thank you!

I may have muddled the count a little, but even if so, only by one or two, and I think equally likely to be in either direction.

I see I completely muddled the conversion into fitocracy, and intended to enter "just under a mile", but I may actually have entered only "just under a k" which is pretty pathetic for me, but still gave me two levels at once.

I swing between bored and "rush for a length to get my heart rate up and then flop exhausted". But the short lengths and a few slow people in the pool actually helped because I was able to hit a reasonably maintainable pace.

[jack]

I swing between bored and "rush for a length to get my heart rate up and then flop exhausted". But the short lengths and a few slow people in the pool actually helped because I was able to hit a reasonably maintainable pace.

[lnr]

It's surprisingly hard to find the spec online, but it looks like it's probably a 25m pool:

http://swim.isport.com/swimming-pools/gb/england/cambridge/greens-health-fitness-cambridge-10651

[jack]

And fortunately the temporary showers actually seem fine. I guess they were apologising that the temporary showers weren't as good as the regular ones, but they lowered my expectations much too far :)

[naath]

IMO the temp. showers (in the ladies) are actually *better* than the old showers although there are too few of them.

I now have super high hopes for the nooo shiny showers.

[jack]

I thought they might be, but since I only had one day to compare I wasn't sure.

Of course, I don't know for sure they're the same in the mens and womens changing rooms, but I assume they are. I remember my family being very amused when we realised that we'd been going to the Worcester swimming baths for years, but hadn't realised that the "cubicles" in the womens' were actual floor-to-ceiling things with doors, but the cubicles in the men's were just waist high walls.

[naath]

True, I've not been in the men's changing room.

[jack]

That was very appropriate of you :)