Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dude, Where's My Lane?

aka More Adventures In Learning To Love Swimming *snort*

After the holiday break and a week of cancelled masters due to pool repairs, we started back up this morning using the pool at a local cabana club. Luckily I spent part of the summer swimming at my parents' cabana club so I knew what to expect: kiddie sized pool, no real deep end, and what our coach called "the closet" for the locker room.

But YAY I was back at masters!

(can you FEEL the enthusiasm?)

Really though, it was good to be back with our coach, so I get the feedback on my stroke, and swimming with a group, which always pushes me harder.

Imagine my surprise when I hop into the last lane, none of my usual lanemates are there, and two new people move into the lane.

What I want to say: Uh, folks? I don't do the same workouts as the rest of you. I'm too slow. I'll drive you nuts....

But there aren't enough lanes in the kiddie pool and so I have to suck it up and swim with the big kids. My coach says, "Grab some fins and just try to keep up."

I can't say I made every interval or that I didn't get dropped sometimes...OK a LOT of times, but I did my best to cling to the heels of the girl in front of me, to ignore the diminishing supply of oxygen and push. No time to shoot the shit at the end of the lane or catch up with my coach after 3 weeks away, just SWIM.

In the end, I think that was an hour I can be proud of. I have a long way to go but it's nice to know that my masters coach thinks - and actually said- that my stroke has improved dramatically.

Saturday will be a measure of whether my speed has improved though...Coach has a swim test scheduled.

*yikes*

10 comments:

Stef0115 said...

Yikes! I'm right behind ya on the swim test. Mine is next week too. :-)

Tea said...

I love the comment "Just try to keep up." I think that would have thrown me into an unsafe competitive mode. :)

Rainmaker said...

I think the 'hold on for dear life' workouts are some of the best! (Well...not when I'm doing them though).

Btw, just looking at your upcoming year, very cool race schedule - some awesome races on there.

SWTrigal said...

YOu are inspiring me!

beardies3 said...

You go girl! I know you can do this!

ShirleyPerly said...

Good for you hanging in there!! Man, I wish my coach would let me wear fins sometimes to hang with faster folks. I think that would be an interesting experience.

Good luck on your swim test!

Alili said...

Huge kudos to you! You are doing what it takes to improve--that takes guts and I really admire you for it. Keep it up!

Melissa said...

Good luck with your swim test set this weekend! WooHoo!

Marit C-L said...

Good luck with the swim test!!! You're going to do great!

Duane said...

You are on your way! Will you please stick around at the finish line at IM AZ until I come in? I think the IM AZ bloggers need to share a bottle of Champagne!