{"id":723,"date":"2010-05-05T08:34:45","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T12:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noelfigart.com\/blog\/?p=723"},"modified":"2010-05-05T08:34:45","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T12:34:45","slug":"swimmin-and-body-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/05\/swimmin-and-body-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimmin' and Body Image"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been slow getting off the mark with my 50 mile challenge. \u00a0But I swam a mile today, gosh darn it! \u00a0It took 50 minutes, which surprised me, as I was sure it’d be a least an hour[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year when I was talking to a friend about the 50 mile challenge and asking her if she was going to do it, she commented, \u201cI couldn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 I\u2019d lose count.\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t try to convince her, as I think the real reason she wasn\u2019t doing it was a much more valid one.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t want<\/em> to.\u00a0 But I got to thinking about keeping count.<\/p>\n

My pool counts a mile as 1800 yards[2]<\/a>.\u00a0 That\u2019s 72 lengths of a 25 yard pool, my friends, and is going to take between 40 minutes and an hour for the average lap swimmer to complete.\u00a0 If you\u2019re counting down by lap, not only are you going to lose count, you\u2019ll probably get bored.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t just hop in the pool and start counting down from 72 doing freestyle.\u00a0 Forget losing count.\u00a0 That would be daunting[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

What I do is sets of laps[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breastroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 150 yards<\/p>\n

1 X 100 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 300 yards<\/p>\n

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 150 yards<\/p>\n

1 X 200 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 600 yards<\/p>\n

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 150 yards<\/p>\n

1 X 100 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 300 yards<\/p>\n

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 150 yards<\/p>\n

Total Swim:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1800 yards<\/p>\n

What this really means is that I never count higher than eight, what with 200 yards being 8 lengths.\u00a0 But it is also a lot easier to face.\u00a0 By the time I\u2019ve warmed up with the shorter sets, 200 yards of a stroke isn\u2019t particularly intimidating.<\/p>\n

I also had a funny thing happen in the locker room today.\u00a0 Like many women in the gym, especially ones with really long hair who need to dry it, I walk from the showers to the lockers with my hair twisted in a towel, but otherwise am not wearing anything.<\/p>\n

It really quiet, only another woman and I.\u00a0 She was swathed in a towel and dressing under it.\u00a0 She commented that she admired my confidence about walking naked to the lockers.\u00a0 She sounded really kind of sad and wistful.<\/p>\n

I turn around as I\u2019m putting on my underwear.\u00a0 She\u2019s about 5\u20197\u201d, and maybe a size 8.\u00a0 Had I seen her first, I would have suspected condescension.\u00a0 But the vocal tone combined with the careful draping of the towel made it clear enough.<\/p>\n

I made a joke of it and asked if she had kids.\u00a0 When she said no, I commented, \u201cEh, well, giving birth will blow away any body modesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thing is, that she felt badly about her body was hurting her.\u00a0 I think it was a bit of a shock to her that the body modification you can achieve in a gym wasn\u2019t necessarily going to cure it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m all for working out and all that smack.\u00a0\u00a0 Obviously, what wit me being<\/em> there and all.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not there to make myself acceptable to what I think outside perception is.\u00a0 I wish I could have thought of something to say that would have helped her.\u00a0 I wish I\u2019d commented that her body is fine the way it is.\u00a0 I wish I\u2019d commented that you don\u2019t have to fit a physical mold to earn the right to live<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I just hope my example said something<\/em> to her, as the pain she clearly felt really bothered me.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Note to competitive swimmers:\u00a0 I know, I\u2019m slow.\u00a0 Go laugh at me somewhere else.
\n[2]<\/a> Yes, a real mile is 1780 yards, but that\u2019s not divisible by 25 yards \u2013 the length of the pool.
\n[3]<\/a> And courting a rotator cuff injury
\n[4]<\/a> This will look familiar to competitive swimmers, though a bit of a light workout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been slow getting off the mark with my 50 mile challenge. \u00a0But I swam a mile today, gosh darn it! \u00a0It took 50 minutes, which surprised me, as I was sure it’d be a least an hour[1]. Last year when I was talking to a friend about the 50 mile challenge and asking her … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Swimmin' and Body Image”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness","category-mental-health","category-rant"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}