Cross Training Snob

"If you're going to make it, your desire for your dreams has to be greater than your fear of failure." 

 Let's be honest here. It's not something that I'm proud of but sometimes during those 90 minute pool workouts I used to chuckle at the old ladies doing their water aerobics. I'd get all proud of myself when I saw people who had to kickboard in between laps because they needed to rest. And people who aqua jogged? please.

I admit it: I'm a cross training snob. I tend to think that no other form of exercise can come close to what running does for you. And when I do cross train, I'm very hardcore about it.Anything that is not either excessive or extravagant is simply not worth it. As much as I hate to admit it, I scoff at people who are not the same way.

Today, however, that attitude dissipated a little bit. I am now one of those aqua-belt wearing, slow moving, water-treading people that I always laughed at. But, the fact that past Katie would have laughed at present Katie had she of known what I looked like aqua-jogging today is really not the point. The point is that I did something. I know, I know it's not really a good adventure but again, it's better than nothing.

Crutching to the pool from the locker room was only a little bit embarrassing. I guess it would have been a lot worse but I was so afraid of falling on my face, or worse, my heel, that I didn't really notice all of the people staring at the little crippled girl who came to do an old lady workout.

I sat on the edge of the pool for about 5 minutes daring myself to get in. In that time I told the lifeguard on duty what had happened to my foot, put on the belt, put my feet in the water, imagined getting in the water, and chickened out multiple times. Finally made myself slide into the water. Arms flailing, feet not working, basically hyperventilating from fear, I started my aqua-run. To keep the least amount of pressure on my foot I did wear one of the unfortunate looking belts to help keep me afloat.

So I kicked and sputtered and doggie-paddled my way through right around 30 minutes. At first it was really hard to deal with. My tendons all freaked out and couldn't quite decide if they should hurt or go with the flow of things. Eventually things got under control and my legs started figuring out what was going on.

I...well...I started out too fast. Even in aqua-jogging I guess I still do that. But my foot wasn't ready to go full speed ahead in the pool yet. So I took is slowly. I jogged for 10 minutes and then let my feet rest and swam using only my arms and then jogged again. So I went for 30 minutes. I could have done more but I figured 30 on the first day was probably enough. I'm still too afraid that it'll be sore. I found some sort of slow rhythm about 15 minutes in that worked pretty well. I shuffled back and forth in the pool telling myself that it really wasn't that pathetic looking.

It taught me something, I guess. Mostly it taught me not to be a snot about cross training. Also that everyone's got to start somewhere. And for me right here, right now, aquajogging at about a quarter of a mile an hour is a perfectly O.K. starting place. It's going to be a long and slow process for me. At first I despised this, but I've decided to be patient and roll with it.

The good news is that maybe because of the endorphins, maybe because of the water, maybe because of the movement, maybe because of the Aleve....my foot has started to feel a little bit stronger. Maybe now it can finally start to heal.