Yay! Cycling AND swimming!

Yesterday Mary was all the way caught up (not finished, but on track) on her summer goals for finishing schoolwork (she decided this past year that all English and Social Studies were optional, but the principal disagreed, so she's having to make it up), so we went to the swimming pool as a reward. Cecilia can finally swim well enough to be left merely in the care of her siblings and the lifeguard, which means I can swim for exercise instead of hanging out in the shallow end. I swam a mile, mostly in freestyle, and I won't even tell you how slowly. I could have (probably should have) pushed myself harder, but except when I was trying not to be in the way of the person behind me, I swam at a steady, fairly easy pace. I think I am in better shape than the last time I swam laps, because I didn't spend the first 10 lengths thinking I wanted to die, and the whole 72 went pretty quickly (not by the clock, though!). And my back didn't hurt (are the planks already doing some good?) and today neither legs nor arms are significantly sore. I only noticed a bit of hamstring tightness this morning, nothing painful.

Despite the lack of weight progress, I'm feeling fitness progress (and I love seeing my mapmyride/mapmyrun calendar full of so many colors and no empty days this month), and yesterday I had no trouble controlling my eating. Today I finally saw a slight scale drop, too. :-)

Then this morning I saw that we had a nasty thunderstorm watch for after noon, which meant if I wanted to exercise outside it had better be sooner rather than later. So, Daniel or no Daniel, I hopped on my bike and rode the 7 miles in town that I did the other day. There was more traffic, but I got stopped at fewer lights (though I ran one -- it's one that only triggers if there is a car, and the oncoming traffic had cleared out, so I went ahead and turned left) and didn't have to stop at Daniel's office along the way, so according to my computer I was done in under 30 minutes. My phone said it was just over 30, but that includes the time to get the dang thing in and out of my emergency kit (note to self: with next phone, get a bike mount) and doesn't stop at traffic lights and stop signs, so that accounts for the disparity. Somewhere in the middle would be the actual riding time. And even the computer said I averaged 14.5 mph. Yay!