Off the deep end

Workout: 35-minute weight workout (20 minutes with Jillian on OnDemand)
Swam 500 yards in, umm, 20 minutes.
Workout fuel: 1 slice wheat bread with Peanut Butter & Co. chocolate peanut butter before weights, another slice with PB between weights and swim.

I love OnDemand. I love it about as much as I hate high school girls but we'll get to that in a bit.

I haven't had a good weight workout in over a week, and who better to get my butt back in gear than Jillian Michaels. I found an abbreviated "No More Trouble Zones" on Exercise TV and followed along as we did lunges, squats, lunges, sumo squats all the while doing lateral raises, bicep curls and tricep extensions.

Although none of it compared to the surrender:



Brutal? Maybe. Enough? No.

The actual workout (sans cool down) was 18 minutes, so I chose another OnDemand selection: Tank Top Arms.

With this lady:
I thought she was going to come out of the TV and beat me with her crazy ripped arms. Seriously, I saw veins. Twenty minutes of that, plus Jillian, and I was done.

Sort of. I still had plans to make my way back to the pool after a three-month hiatus. Needless to say I was a bit nervous. And it only got worse when I realized the pool was set up for a "long course" and I'd be swimming alongside the high school swim team.

Kim, I'd like you to meet high school girls. They think Washington, D.C., is in Washington state. They think it's funny when someone gets pulled over for going 23 mph over the speed limit. They complain that they can't breathe but somehow find the air to giggle incessantly as you try to get ready for work. They try to round up the team for prayer but somehow forget to stop the aforementioned giggling.

Fast, good swimmers, I'd like you to meet the slowest, least graceful swimmer on the planet. You will see me cling to the wall right before finishing the last few yards because swimming in the deep end scares me. You'll see me close my eyes so I don't realize how deep the water is. You'll see me gasp for air because I forget to breathe out when I put my face in the water.

I ended up doing 500 yards. I could have done more. I should have done more. Except I thought I had done 1,000 yards until the lifeguard schooled me. I have a few more (well, like 10) swims on my punch card so I will be heading back to the pool a few more times this summer. As much as I dislike, I know it makes me a better runner.

Do you do workouts that you don't like?