We got our YMCA membership mid-January and I've gone 4-6 times a week consistently, even while out of town. I really love it there, it's fun to see the same familiar faces; the childcare is clean and orderly with enthusiastic staff; and there is such great VARIETY for exercise!! It has been nice for me to take a break from running and do whatever classes I feel like, plus some weight lifting, cardio marchines, and my 2x/week swim class.
.....I love the swim class! What a great thing to get free swim technique instruction. The teacher is really awesome, and the class is pretty small. My first day I came in as a fairly confident swimmer, having done 2 sprint triathalons. Well, she tore my stroke apart! And I began to flounder, unconfident, unsmooth, uncomfortable with the new technique. But bit by bit I have pieced it together and now I can say, after 6 weeks, I got it down! I feel comfortable and confident, and my new form is much more quick and efficient than the way I was swimming before. Today I swam laps for 40 minutes at a pretty high rate, without stopping. For me, that's an awesome accomplishment. I would have kept going but I had a 4-mile run to do afterward. So I am excited to see if my time has improved in this season's triathlons.
I took a break from running but now I am getting back into it as my next half-marathon is on April 9. Which means I don't get to do all the fun classes at the gym :( I'm working at finding a good balance, just running 3x/week and swimming 2x/week, with 2-3 other workouts. Before I was exercising about 1 hour every day, but I am trying other patterns. Like this week I only exercised 3 days, but 1 hr, 45 minutes each day. It's HARDER!! I didn't even feel the rest days... that endurance aspect makes things tough. Should be great conditioning for triathlons.
