Naked Yoga and Other Gym Adventures

February 2, 2012


The aqua saga continues.

It's been 5 weeks today since I broke a metatarsal.  Dr. McCrum told me a typical time frame for healing would be 6-8 weeks. I can't imagine being able to run in one week. I have progressed to gimpy walking, some people not noticing that I avoid pressure on the top of my foot. I have tried to walk normally and it's not ready. The pain is immediate and I'm smart enough to not push it.  I'm hopeful that 3 more weeks will do the trick but I also want to continue running without injury so I will let it heal no matter what the time frame.

While I wait for my bone to repair itself, I continue driving to the YMCA nearly every day for swimming and/or aquajogging.  It's been about 3 weeks since I started this routine and I have discovered something about myself. I not only love competing in running, but I believe I just love competing, even against myself. My water running and swimming began quite innocently, me just a poor little fish trying to survive in a pool of flip-turn, drill masters. With my aqua belt strapped on tightly, my bingo-blue stamper head bobbing ever so slowly down the lane while underneath, I'd be stirring up a storm with my running. I began with 30 minutes of running and have progressed to 90 minutes. I read that I should be running in the water as long as a planned road run. Sigh. I have incorporated swimming and am up to 2 miles. Of course I had to look at the ironman swim distance, 2.4 miles, and have this incessant need to swim further than that.

Today I will attempt 2-2.5 hours of running while trying not to go bat-crazy or call anyone a monkey butt for splashing me with their wide splish splashy strokes. Don't get me wrong; I love the pool and most are quite polite and give me plenty of birth while I skim the rope line to stay out of their way.  It's just the guys - usually - who take up an entire lane with their wide flinging arms. And can I say the breast stroke is not an invitation to touch the boobies as you go by me?

Outside of the pool, in the secret caves aka locker rooms, I have discovered oddities...things that make you go hmmm.

• Naked hot yoga. Why pay for hot yoga when you can just strip down to nothing and do it in the sauna?  Hey!  No criss-cross applesauce!
• Massages in the steam room.  Naked.  Okay, ladies, knock it off!
• Getting ready to leave the locker room and staying naked until the last possible second. 
• Discovering I am an anatomy lesson for little children after 3:30 pm.  

Hey, I know it's a locker room and naked happens. But really, can you leave SOMETHING on while you deep stretch in the sauna?  Grrr.  Oh.  GUYS!  In case you're wondering, whatever you're imagining, yeah...not.

I had my first water running lane sharer this past week. A guy joined me and hey, I'm okay with sharing a lane. No big. It's just a little awkward, 2 heads bobbing slowly up and down the lane, and you're kind of forced to smile every time and, you know, converse. The swimmers are pretty much submerged so that's not a big deal. Found out he's planning on running a 24 hour race this year sometime. He's up to 16 miles. He doesn't have ultra experience but after hearing him talk, I think he thinks he has it all figured out.


While passing each other, oh yes, lots of time to talk as we approach and pass, he tells me he thinks that in a 24 hour race, it comes down to "what's up here" as he pointed to his brain, and yes, I agree, your thoughts and discipline, etc. are huge in ultras. But let's not forget the body. It's going through self-imposed fatigue and pain in ways you won't understand unless you've gone through mega distances. So how do I respond? I say, "It has a lot to do with what's down here," pointed under the water.  Yeah. Idiot. What I meant (legs, feet!) and what he heard may have been different based on the look on his face. Insert blush.  My friends said that I was right. It takes balls to attempt a 24 hour. 

See you in the pool!