Costs of a Broken Foot

So I broke my foot last June. Running my very first half marathon. awesome huh?

So that left me out of commission for a good two months. So what's a running-obsessed girl to do? Find something else to be obsessed with.

This post is especially fitting because right now that foot is being a humongous pain in the ass and giving me crap for switching up my return to running routine.

So my running substitute? swimming. I tried biking, but its just not as fun as actually getting outside, counting out laps, breaths, and obtaining spectacular tan lines.

I have always had a "jump-headfirst" mindset when it comes to trying new things. And a "if i buy this, i will then do this" mindset.

This worked out okay in the long run when it came to a lot of my running gear (example: garmin forerunner 305 - purchased: july 2009, utilized consistently: march 2011.) but that's not necessarily the case always.

When I bought my iPod shuffle a few summers ago, I actually intended to use it for swimming! (although that swimming never actually happened)

So to start off with swimming I made a single purchase:

An awesome multi-colored swim cap for $11.

tyr kalidoscope swim cap 

So after swimming pretty consistently for 5 weeks or so, I took a trip to swimoutlet.com and placed an order.

sporti pull buoy (in pink of course)

sporti flotation belt

triswim shampoo

and finally to round out the complete swimming essentials for semi-serious business swimmers:

a kickboard.

and not just any kickboard. a $5 from target's children's swim section DORA THE FREAKING EXPLORER kickboard.

you know you're jealous. its okay. no need to confirm/deny.

I think kickboards are pretty universal in their function, and dora seems to work just fine. (i usually flip her over so that the plain blue side is on the top when i'm swimming, just to not seem like a total creepster).

So a few comments about my swimming paraphernalia.

So the swimming shampoo. I still don't know if its really necessary since I wear a swim cap, but I figure most swimmers do, and there's still this product, so I'll go with it.

I looked into this brand a while ago, was bummed to see it contained parabens (more about these icky things later), and didn't order. Then when I looked on swimoutlet.com it specifically said paraben free and i was all over that.

When it came in the mail i look at the ingredients to see this:

but wait -- what's this?

WTF TRISWIM? what is it??

So I made a phone call to them this morning, and they're checking with the chemists.  I will keep you updated.


2nd thing: the floatation belt.

Yes, I'm going to water jog. Reading Cris's blog about her return to run post metatarsal fracture has pretty much solidified my interest in aqua jogging. so, once I'm back at school and at the school pool, I'm going to start it up. I'm a little too embarrassed to pull it out at the dearborn pool. lame lame. I will, of course, keep you all apprised of how it works out.