adrian is rad

3/18/2005

tan on the back of my thigh

Filed under: — adrian @ 10:25 am

I know I’ve been swimming enough when my lower back and back of my thighs are tanned. I checked out my backside in the mirror at the pool yesterday and sure enough: a light tan, but there’s a distinguishable lighter area where my swim suit sits.

I’ve been keeping up three times a week since early January. My old standard used to be five times a week but I hurt my elbow last year and decided in order to recover, I ought not to swim two days in a row. I’ve been swimming with a brace on that elbow.

It’s aching at the end of swims. This isn’t something new. That’s part of the reason I don’t swim on consecutive days. The other day I got some muscle aching in my right arm. That’s encouraging; I take it to mean that the muscle is the weakest link, not the ligament at the elbow.

Some people can run for days or bike up all the hills in the world. I can swim. I was never the fastest, but I could swim farther than you in four hours, especially if you’re Maggie. (ha!)

But, yeah, I’m swimming again. It’s nice. The water is so comfortable for me.

[note one: all of Stanford’s pools are outside and heated. Yes, we swim in them even during the “winter.”]

[note two: I mention maggie because she challenged me to a four hour swim-off a couple years ago. It never happened but she basically conceded after I swam 3.5 miles in two hours to see what I could do.]

2 Responses to “tan on the back of my thigh”

  1. Milkshake Says:

    I too swim every other day. I find it to be a most relaxing form of exercise. Runners and cyclists don’t know what they’re missing. I read somewhere that 48 hours is the longest you can go before you start to lose what you’ve gained from your last swim. Um – in other words the article was saying you don’t gain anything more by swimming every day verses every other day (except you will burn more calories if you swim every day if that’s your thing). You are so lucky you can swim outside year round – I can’t wait until summer when I can once again enjoy the sun’s rays while swimming my laps.

  2. Adrian Says:

    If you remember where you saw that article, I’d like to read it.

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