10 Feet of Rope, 2 Bungee Cords, and A Belt

The exercise addiction has kicked in, like I knew it would. It's a good disorder to have, every day, looking forward to that "fix". I especially like cross training, or multisport training, because every day I do something different. With no gym membership, and a restriction on running, I'm left with cycling and swimming, and weight training. I'm also at home with at least 3 children, sometimes 5 or 6, depending on the day. We seem to collect them, which is fine with me, but I have to plan my training time around who is coming and when,and sometimes things happen at the last minute. This morning was an example of the usual "unusualness"of my life. I offered to watch a friend's child while she worked for the morning. The arrangement came about after a flurry of texting early in the morning. It's a win win situation, my daughter is entertained, and the mom gets to work for the morning. We were both going to the movies with our kids after lunch anyway.

Now, here is where I get creative. I can't leave the kids to go on my ride, however, we do have a backyard pool, which gets used almost every day from May to September by the kids, and occasionally by us adult types when we can't stand the heat, or, after mowing. Swimming laps in the pool, however, is not a whole lot of fun, possibly less fun than, say, riding on rollers in a damp basement, another activity I studiously avoid. So....off to the garage to dig around for some bits and pieces of things, and here is what I found:

Doesn't look like much, does it? It's actually a high tech swimming training aid, in disguise. I tied the rope to the fence, hitched 2 bungee cords together, and hooked the bungee cords to the belt, which was around me. In I went, and off I swam. 20 minutes on the cords and 10 minutes of laps. All this while the kids were swimming. Yay for me. Now, to work on the weight training without stressing the knees...