Urban Moatworks
originally posted: mid-September 2001
Brought to you by yours truly, with help from That Kelly Girl. I got to thinking yesterday . . . and I have a witness!
Yeah, so I went out for a run on Wednesday after work. This is a rare occurrence; the last time I ran was Mother's Day, and before that, 1993. I've never been much of a jogger, having spent my days on the high school track team sprinting to play practice, then running through my lines. But every once in a while I get a wild notion to hit the road, so I did. I was curious to see whether all the rope jumping I've been doing has affected my cardiovascular fitness. The good news is, it has! I made it 3.5 miles without stopping (although not very fast!), and felt, cardio-wise, like I could go farther.
The bad news is, knee- and leg-wise, I did not feel so great. Nothing traumatic or anything, but all that pounding of the pavement clearly took its toll on my joints and connective tissues -- which is why I seldom run in the first place. So I got to thinking . . . I enjoyed the aerobic workout but not the impact. If I wanted a nice, low-impact aerobic activity to alternate with the rope jumping, swimming would be the perfect choice. I don't have time to pack myself off to a health club every day, but I do have a pretty large back yard. While it isn't big enough for an Olympic-sized pool, it's certainly long enough for a strip pool, maybe two or three lanes wide -- perfect for lap swimming.
But why stop there? Swimming up and back, up and back would get pretty boring after a few laps. Why not build connected strip pools on all four sides of my property, encircling the house? It would be like a running track with my humble abode in the infield. I could swim in circles during Minnesota's temperate summers and ice skate the oval the other nine months of the year. I'd have to install a drawbridge so the postal person could get in, but other than that, I don't see any problems. I'll check the local zoning ordinances and get back to you.