Swimmin'

Since I arrived I've been trying to get into a regular workout schedule. There's a health club down the road that's not too bad, and has a good student discount, so I've joined that. I think I've decided that mainly I'll be alternating between Nautilus workouts (done quickly so that there's an aerobic benefit) and swimming. I still plan to run now and then, but I'll probably wind it down because it's a little bit boring and pretty high-impact too.

I'm going to need to learn to swim quite a lot better. That may sound strange for an oceanographer who's a certified SCUBA diver and who grew up in Florida, but true nevertheless. I have problems with form, finding a pace and breathing properly.

I never took swimming lessons as a kid, and the swimming I did was mostly in backyard pools, too small to swim laps in. When I went to Georgia Tech I took "drownproofing" (a requirement for graduation at the time). I'm glad I did, but at the time I wasn't so happy about it. To pass it you had to do things like remain at the deep end of the pool with your hands tied behind your back and a 10-pound brick hanging around your neck for an entire class period. The techniques may save my life some day, but they did nothing for my swimming form, since we didn't do any real swimming.

I'm currently nursing a bit of a sunburn. I was tired of my farmer tan, so I went walking on the beach Saturday with the intention of getting a little protective base tan on my upper body. I overdid it a little and am a little pink -- not too bad. But it's definitely going to peel.