Exercise paradigm.

There has been a deep and profound shift in me. I’ve alluded to this change, but I’d like to explain it a little bit more.


In the past I have never wanted to exercise. I would exercise, but the desire to do so just wasn’t there. There were phases of random exuberance for running and swimming, but nothing that truly made me connect to the act of working out.

I cannot explain what has happened, but I have changed. The “hot word” on my campus these days is paradigm. This word is defined as a pattern in its simplest terms, so I guess you can say I have a new exercise paradigm. The phrase that keeps floating around my head is that, “there has been a shift in my exercise paradigm.”

Let me illustrate what has changed and what’s new in Ashley’s Exercise Paradigm. First off, when I was signing up for classes for this semester I needed a one hour course. On a whim I decided to sign up for a swimming class, but when looking at the various courses; I took a chance. I bypassed the basic swim class, the swim conditioning class and lifeguard training class. I signed up for ADVANCED swimming. Ridiculous? Probably. Good idea? Hopefully!

I decided to challenge myself with a more difficult class because I know all the swim strokes and I did not want an excuse to slack off. So, here I am—in an advanced swim class surrounded by hardcore swimmers. But I’m excited nonetheless. My first class could have been described as a disaster… by anyone else. I was by far the slowest swimmer there, but you know what? Every time I had my head out of the water I was smiling. I felt blessed to be there and I was ready for the challenge. I know I might hate myself some days for the pain this class will cause, but I will kick some butt. I will get faster and I will hold my own. It’s not about winning or being the fastest, it’s about getting healthy and doing things that I used to not believe were possible.

It would be silly for me to say there has been this huge change if I was only exercising twice a week in class; so I took advantage of my newfound desire to work out and set off to do some research. Our Student Recreational Center offers a variety of classes to help students get into shape and learn new fitness skills. My biggest things in my research was to find a class that worked with my class, work and meeting schedule AND a class that I had to pay for. I wanted there to be a monetary commitment to the class so I would be more compelled to attend. It also came to mind that I shouldn’t do a class on the days I swim, so my options were limited. I was originally going to take a Spin class, but it filled up and I was left with one option. One crazy option and an option I decided to take. I am officially a member of an Intro to Triathlon class. YES… Running (gross), biking (not so bad) and swimming (amazing). More importantly… I have to roll out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to make it to my 6:15 am class for an hour and fifteen minutes of torture.

But, GOOD NEWS! I’ve been to this class… TWICE. And I love it! Yes, I am extremely daunted by the whole thing; but our instructor is amazing. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent my brother after my first day:

"So, our instructor started talking about all we will expect to do. Each class we will do 2 legs of practice. So, it will be a run/swim, swim/bike, bike/run, etc. The swim and spin will be done indoors or in the pool. But evidently the running will be more... entertaining? Blaine (instructor) likes to run around campus. He likes running in our parking garage so we have to go up and downhill. He also likes using our arena steps. I may be making my very own Rocky movie with this class!"

On day two we swam and biked. I did well swimming (even though I was having suit issues… dang wardrobe malfunctions!) and not so swell at biking. But I’m in love with this class. Up before the sun and smiling by the time I get out… what more can I ask for?

I’ve been bit by the proverbial exercise bug and my exercise paradigm has shifted—and it feels amazing!