![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ssrun.jpg\" "\\"ssrun\\"")
<\/a>\nThe Horrible Limbo days are my swim days. I hate not having a pool. I hate not having a place to go. I could totally skip the pool and just bike to work on Fridays but I swim on Fridays. Fridays are a swim day. Not every Friday–but most Fridays for the last 6 years have been swim days. I like the tradition. I like the schedule. It works for me, it works for my schedule.<\/p>\n
I’m testing out gyms right now, trying to find one that’s a good fit for me. In the interim I’m still working out, even though I do not have a gym. I’ve gone for a hike, I’ve been swimming a few times, I’ve also biked to work.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I’m making sure I still eat my normal way. While I may not have the routine and schedule of a gym to go to, I do have the stability of a normal eating routine.<\/strong> I’m not changing my eating habits and falling apart completely!<\/p>\n Thursday night I made us salads from our garden. Fresh tomatoes, basil, chopped black olives and mozzarella, salt, pepper, with balsamic and oil dressing:<\/p>\n On Friday I called LA Fitness to ask for a 7-Day Trial. I wanted to go to their pool on Friday night and with a 7 Day trial I could get in three swim days and even try their actual gym for a weights workout twice before the trial was over. I spoke to the General Manager–who was a total arse. But he’s a salesguy, right? That’s his job.<\/p>\n I explained that I’d been to their gym once before to teach a friend how to swim<\/a>. But that I had not tried out their gym and was hoping for a pass. He said that since I already had a pass he wasn’t going to give me one because I “already saw the gym.” Hmmm. Great customer service<\/strong>. His attitude, his pushy sales-guy spiel was a major turn off to me and not making me want to join LA Fitness. He was super pushy, saying I have to sign up RIGHT NOW<\/strong> to get some special deal. He sounded frantic and aggressive. Slow down, dude. Seriously. Ugh, I was SO annoyed with him on the phone. But I accepted a 1 day pass to come in on Friday night after work.<\/p>\n I got to the gym after work, prepared to tell the guy nevermind if he was too pushy, and asked for the GM. He wasn’t there so I talked to another guy who said he’d email me a 7 day pass (which will be nice if that actually happens, at this time I haven’t received the email pass yet). He did let me go for a swim Friday night. The pool there is nice and big. It’s also salt water, which is nice and different.<\/p>\n The gym wasn’t crowded at all and the locker rooms are really nice and clean (so are the showers). I got in the pool, which was rather crowded. It also didn’t have the\u00a0buoys marking off the lanes, which is weird. It causes two problems: 1) people are kind of clueless and when there aren’t ropes in the pool they swim all over the place and 2) it creates a lot of waves.<\/p>\n I swam my routine next to an older gentleman who was a good swimmer (unlike the other people goofing off in the pool). Half way through I asked the older guy about the waves in the pool. It was really strange. It was like swimming in the ocean (or how I imagine that to be). He explained about the ropes. It was a good swim but challenging<\/strong>–which is good for me, right? I need challenges in the pool because regular swimming is so easy for me now. The waves simulated swimming in the ocean and it fatigued my arms quickly. I swam for 15 minutes and my arms felt tired! What?!?!? I pressed on and had a great swim-100 lengths (50 laps) in 55 minutes. When I was done, the older gentleman complimented my swimming strength. Michael better watch out! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n After my swim I met Michael for dinner at Rovente Pizza<\/a>\u00a0on SE Hawthorne. I’ve never been there before but have driven by it a million times. Michael bought a Groupon for it that we had to use.<\/p>\n We enjoyed our dinner outside at the picnic tables.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nI could stop swimming for awhile and just rely on biking and running as my exercise. But swimming is in my heart. I can’t give it up.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nFor dinner I baked trout with minced garlic, butter, salt, pepper, basil and sliced heirloom tomatoes from the garden.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nIt was flavorful and low in calories. I even had some leftover calories for the day to have a small dessert.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n