Yesterday I decided to do something novel and amazing–exercise.

Yes, I know. Me. Exercise.

After much pondering, I decided to try swimming. I have a few reasons for this–the first and foremost being that I really, really love the water. Once of the most maddening things about living in San Francisco, at least for me, is that I’m so very close to the ocean but I can’t go into it. At least, not without a wetsuit and/or a case of hypothermia.

The other reason being that I wanted to do something that was a little less punishing. I have a habit with exercise–I’ll try for a while, to lift weights or run/walk, but then I start to have a lot of pain and I stop. For a long time. My knees, in particular, give me a lot of trouble. My kneecaps shift to the side when I bend my knees, and while it’s not an unusual problem, it’s pretty frustrating. I’ve done varying forms of physical therapy with no luck; the goal is always to strengthen my muscles without hurting my knees, but I haven’t found any way to do that.

I’d thought about swimming before, but the Y here was so expensive I’d given up hope. Then I discovered the Temescal pool. It’s outdoors, but heated so you don’t freeze (although come winter, I may find that I’m eying the burkini with a new sense of appreciation–it looks warm, at least) and it’s pretty cheap.

So, I dragged a friend with me and off we went. Well. It’s been about ten years since I last went swimming, and it shows. I managed about 3 laps (I’m counting up and back as a lap) before I was done. I’ll definitely chalk this up as one of the more humiliating experiences in life–anything that involves me being out of shape, in a swimsuit, and doing physical activity is the type of thing I avoid, on account of I like people to respect me and not laugh at me–but at least I didn’t drown. My technique is horrible and sloppy, and I’m definitely struggling.

But, it’s still progress. It’s a 100 foot pool, so that’s 600 feet of swimming and while that may not be great, it’s 600 feet more than I have swum in a long time. Plus, amazingly enough, I’m not sore today. So perhaps worth keeping at it, at least until I erase the memory of me being slow and getting passed by old ladies in their ruffly swimsuits.

Maybe I’ll even buy a better swimsuit. (Or at least one dig out the bikini bottoms that aren’t in danger of falling off. That would be good.)