Slowly but Surely.

Last week was a crazy week. My last real workout was my long run on June 23rd. 

Yeah... it's been a while.

I was very active last week. I spent days working with 10-15 year olds at my summer theatre camp. No downtime during camp week. There's barely time to eat! 

I spent the evenings in the pool with my kiddos. We've been doing our "water workouts" which usually consist of running or swimming around the pool to create a whirlpool. Then we try to swim against the current. It is so much fun. 

I spent some time working on my breathing. I really want to get better at swimming. I can swim forever, but I can't crawl or breathe. I held onto the edge and put my face in the water. I tried to practice turning my head and breathing without lifting my face out of the water. It didn't go super well, but there was some improvement near the end. I would like to go swimming somewhere this week and try to put it all together. The only way I'll get better is if I practice. 

It's been super hot (for Vermont) and humid this week. Today was slightly better, and I decided to squeeze in some exercise. I took Moon Dog for a very short walk. It's still way too hot for big, black puppies to be out for very long. He was happy to get outside, though, and we stayed in the shady spots. 

I wanted to do more, but I had very little time. I decided to do terminators. Now, back on June 14th I wrote about my first round of terminators, and I said I would be doing them weekly and timing myself to see if I improved. Ha! 

It's been a few weeks since then. Oh well. Try, try again. Let's see if I can start doing them weekly. It may or may not happen, but I'll at least do them occasionally and see how I am doing. 

I wasn't sure how they would go this time. It's still hot out, and there is no AC in my gym. I wasn't expecting to do very well. 

I got it done. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't fast, but I did all 165 reps. I beat my first time. By a lot. The first try I took breaks, but I needed breaks. I was breathing heard, and my heart was racing. This time my breaks were a lot shorter. I'd pause for an extra breath or two and then keep going. When I started feeling sick a few years ago, I stopped pushing, and I think gaining this back has been one of the best things about having the surgery. I can push through more and withstand more. I'm starting to feel strong again. It's a major confidence booster and something I needed very much.

My first time was 8:47. Today 6:48. Almost two minutes faster. And it felt better, too. I'm making improvements. Slowly but surely.