So, due to a variety of circumstances I have become a member of the Fitness Club Esforta, near Suidoubashi. Today for the first time, I decided to go down there and take a swim.

I haven’t been swimming in ages. I have been running a few times a week, so I like to think that I’m in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, I haven’t been losing any weight at all, so I thought I would add swimming to my regime. I’ve never really been swimming for real exercise though, so I wasn’t sure about what to expect. I hoped to be able to swim for about 20 minutes.

The fitness club has lots of things that they loan out to you: new balance sneakers, towels, socks, and even bathing suits. The bathing suits are speedos, and I took the second largest size, but the thing was skin tight. Since I took my glasses off though, I couldn’t see anything and it didn’t seem too embarrassing. Everyone else was wearing them too. How Japanese. We all match!

So I got into the pool, and swam a lap. My form was atrocious. I didn’t know when to breathe. I’m pretty sure that when I breathed in it was the wrong time because I was having a lot of trouble with it. The second lap my arms were heavy. The third lap was really tough, so I tried to swim it on my back, but I couldn’t see very well. The fourth lap was a very slow affair, with heavy arms and it was hard to breathe.

That was it. I got out and checked the clock. Only ten minutes had passed. I couldn’t believe how heavy my arms were, and I was starting to get a bit light-headed. I changed and took a fifteen minute break before heading back to the station.

By the time I got back to Jiyugaoka, about an hour later, I was fine again. My arms had quit tingling and my head was no longer light.

Next time I’m trying for 11 minutes.