little black journal

Contrary to what our Sunday afternoon nap schedule might tell you, Shane and I are a pretty active couple – we try really hard to stay fit and exercise several times a week.  And since we enjoy each other’s company so much (six years and going strong!), I’ve been looking for a way for us to work out together.  Finding common ground in the athletic arena has been tricky – Shane bails after about seven seconds of Warrior 1, so my yoga and Barre3 videos are of no interest to him, but he runs like a madman, so his slow and steady jog is my all-out, Cujo-nipping-at-my-heels kind of pace (after my last blue-in-the-face attempt to keep up with him, I decided we would not run together again unless I had a pair of rollerblades strapped to my feet or he had a 25-pound sack of flour strapped to his back).  I don’t really like biking, and he loves a Saturday morning 20-mile cruise around Mercer Island.  It seemed exercise was just one of those things we’d have to do separately, until he registered for the Seafair Triathlon and undertook the burden of learning how to swim.  He signed up for lessons at the public pool and joined my gym so that he could practice there.  I was on the swim team when I was a kid and hadn’t really done a lap since, but I offered to tag along and cheer him on.  And Holy Speedo!  I love being back in the pool! We’ve been swimming together a couple times a week, and I’m feeling great, enjoying the progress I’ve seen both of us make in just a few short weeks.  We’ve added a pool workout to our new Sunday routine, right between church and a visit to the amazing Malaysian foot cart at the Broadway Farmer’s Market (more on that in another post), and we felt so proud of ourselves today when we finished our longest distance to-date.  He’ll still go off and run his seven and a half minute miles, and I’ll still hold that Sun God pose ’till my legs shake, but the pool?  That’s our territory.