Is this a Hicky or a Bruise?

At least that is what Katy Perry asked after her last Friday night out. Was it a hicky, or in fact, just a bruise?

Well this Katy was asking herself the same thing this Friday morning, but the markings in question were not from any kind of sordid alcohol induced risky business!! Rather, a rather tight pair of swimming goggles!

I really love swimming. I grew up at the beach and love the water. However, now living in a city, I am not always near the ocean, and plus, for me, all the waves make it more a place for recreational swimming, not calorie burning!!

7 years ago when I embarked upon a big fitness/lifestyle change, I unfortunately broke 3 toes only a few days into it. Rather than give up, I decided to go to the local council pool and do laps. This combined with my eating regime (remember, it was just 5 shakes a day at this time), and I continued to lose weight over the next few weeks until I could start putting a full body weight back on my foot.

This time though, I have no broken toes and I have been lucky to be able to do lots of different exercise - every morning on my exercise bike, kickboxing, body pump classes at the gym, and just this week, I have started to learn to run - more on that on a post coming soon!! I do however, still suffer some occasional knee pain as a reminder of several bad knee dislocations in the past, and have wanted to add some swimming back into my routine to burn calories, get the heart rate up, but take a bit of pressure off my poor little caps!

I researched around and found that the school a few minutes from my house has an 'open to the public' pool and gym, and much to my excitement, the pool is heated!! For those in the South Brisbane area, it is at Summerville House Girls School:
http://www.swimmersguide.com/query/Detail.cfm?PoolID=6843

Tuesday night I went for my first session and did 20 laps (1km), and I noticed that every Tuesday night at 6pm they have one lane closed off for aqua aerobics. I even saw the ladies in the class using pool friendly hand weights at times. I think I will be trying this class next week (it is only $9 on top of the pool entry for a 1hr session!)

This morning I was pumped after my 60min bike session, and decided to back it up at the pool, to aim high and go for 40 laps. Every lap, I was just thinking of the next lap, and visualising how great I would feel when the 40 were done. I broke it down into little sessions in my head - lots of 5, lots of 10, 50% completed etc, and in between this I sang songs I had to learn to myself, I pictured myself in my 'before photos', and any number of other things to spur myself on. I wondered what those professional swimmers think about when they are doing hundreds of laps!

With just 5 laps to go, I realised my goggles were feeling rather tight over my ears, and started to really feel them sucking in on my eyes. It was almost the want to see how ridiculous my eyes looked that made me get through the last 5 laps faster than the other 35 I had just completed!

I got out of the water and had to literally peel the goggles off my face. The red rings were instantly noticeable, but underneath my eyes almost looked a bit green in the light. It had me wondering 'are the markings from the suction, or might these goggles have been so tight that I have actually slightly bruised my face?!' Walking to the car (yes I did drive there, sorry everybody!), I was feeling heavy as lead for a minute or 2, after the weightless feeling of being in the water, but I also felt stoked that I had set a goal for myself this morning and achieved it relatively easily. What's more, it was a great extra session to throw into the mix when joints are feeling a little sore, as there was no pressure on them. I will definitely be trying to keep up 2 pool sessions a week over the rest of the 12 Week Body Transformation program - and beyond.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, the songs I was learning in the pool are for a wedding I'm singing at tonight, and you will be pleased to know that my eye hickies have now disappeared.


:)