I am feeling absolutely discouraged. I got up at 5:20 a.m. yesterday in an attempt to go to the YMCA for their warm water pool 'Adult Individual Fitness', which runs from 5:30 a.m.-9 a.m. Even though I planned to take a shower there, had everything packed, etc., I realised that if I went, I'd have maybe 1/2 hour in the pool until I'd have to take said shower and go to work. So instead I just showed up at work an hour early and worked on some things on my Kindle.
Today I said, fine, it's open swim from 2-8:45 (they close at 9 p.m.) I'll go after work. I get there and it's actually a kid swim class with about 20 people in 3/4 of the relatively small pool and another 10 in the 1/4 that is left as 'open swim'. I just can't do my exercises with that much churning and little room. I'd have maybe a four-foot square of space to myself, which I guess I could do a few things that didn't require walking, but not really get the full benefit, and I find it very distracting. I went back into the women's locker room, called the Y, and asked him to recommend a time I could work out that would be quieter. There is, of course, the 5:30 in the morning option (although it was a real struggle yesterday and I'm really just not a morning person, and tend to stay up far later than I should just for work because that is my natural circadian rhythm.) He also suggested between 1-3, before the kids get home from school.
Sigh. Yeah. While I'm at work. Of course, it would be, since the majority of workers like me work then.
I am already discouraged by this experiment because I joined in late June, worked out on the Nu-Step for all of 15 minutes and then got severe sciatica right afterwards (I could barely walk, and even sitting was really painful) and of course, spent all of August in the wrap/boot. I finally got out of the boot about a week and a half ago. So I tried.
Today I went, hopeful, and got dressed in my swimsuit (both putting it on backwards and realising that I left the tag on.) :) But it was just too crowded. I sat in the changing room crying after talking to the guy. I've spent over $200 on this membership since June and have been able to work out for exactly 15 minutes. Even today, I could have at least done the Nu-Step, but I didn't talk to my doctor about exercise and thought I'd better check with him before doing it with or without the orthotic on.
I went home, called the Y again, and asked when the last day was that I could cancel my membership and not be charged at the beginning of the month. Apparently, you have to give them 15 days' notice, so I'm locked in until at least October 15th. If I have not managed to meaningfully do anything with the pool, I'm giving up. I came to the YMCA--and this branch of the Y--because it has a warm water pool (the only one in the Bluegrass YMCA system). I applied for financial hardship so it's $45 a month rather than $60, but good God, if I wanted to just work out on some machine I'd spend $10 a month at one of the 24/7 gyms and be done with it. I don't.
So tomorrow I am going to call Cardinal Hill (where I did my outpatient aquatherapy in the first place). They are under new ownership or management it looks like, and while it used to be that you could pay for their pool use per time, they closed at 6 p.m. each weekday. Maybe with the new changes they'd be open later or even on the weekend. It's worth an ask.
Am I being terribly unreasonable? I'm really not trying to sound like those pesky kids are the problem. It's not that. The crowding in general is, especially for someone who's pretty sensitive to noise and other stimuli. A lot of it also my frustration with how my health and disabilities are getting worse because of my health and disabilities. But in all actuality, I think the big problem is that there aren't really services for those with disabilities who are not retired or on full-time disability and who are unavailable 9-5 as they are normal business hours.
I did review the schedule. There is one time a week I may be able to work this out, and it is from 8 a.m.-10 a.m. on Saturdays. I'm going to go. It's once a week, but it's something. I just don't know if it'll be enough to make the fee worth it.
Should I try to stick it out? Or give them till October 15th and just chuck it in?
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