As I was going into the Walkup Center today, I saw a woman who's in the water aerobics class and she said that yesterday's workout, which I missed because of the chimney sweep coming out, had "accelerators" which are 2 minutes fast intervals.
Stephanie, our water aerobics instructor, did the accelerators again today and all I can say is "Oh, baby!!" These fast intervals are just what I need to feel alive and what I should have added all along to my former land-based exercise routine. I'm going to enjoy these accelerators because they are an aerobic challenge and good exercise.
The hardest accelerator is the one where we pretend we are on a bicycle, with no assistance from our hands - we hold them out of the water like we're holding a bicycle steering wheel - going up and downhill. On the uphill, we bicycle our legs slower but with bigger circles which creates more resistance and on the downhill we bicycle with smaller, faster circles. I didn't think it was possible to overheat in the water but my face felt hot! Needless to say, I didn't bother with swimming laps afterwards as I was exercised thoroughly enough during the class today!
The teacher was late. It turned out that she has a gas leak at her house. She said she wondered why she was getting headaches. She didn't have time to bring out the boom box poolside to play music, a Thursday tradition, but she will next week.
Twice this week, high school ROTC members have taken up half of "our" deep end during part of our class. They practice jumping in in their clothes and retrieving an object from the bottom of the pool.
There's a woman in the class who has taught water aerobics and, even though she's overweight, she is very, very fast. I complimented her on that. She has plantar fasciitis and likes Dr. Blake, another podiatrist who comes up to the medical center.
Coincidentally, I found a book on water fitness in the Mesa Public Library non-return shelves today. Even more coincidentally, it was from the Walkup Center, having LRWAC written on the cover (the full name of the Walkup Center is the Larry R. Walkup Aquatic Center, named in honor of a Los Alamos County recreation director who died at a young age)! It's more about swimming for fitness, though, than water aerobics.