I did not want to go swimming tonight, but my daughter was keen and I had missed my chance to go for a run, what with sleep and grocery shopping. So I gobbled down a light dinner of sweet potato roast chicken, lettuce and roasted spicy red pepper wrap, and gathered up our housecoats and warmest towels. It was definitely a good idea!
There were only 3 people in the pool but they were diligently doing their laps when we arrived. One woman called encouragingly, "It's nice once you get in", and another neighbour stated the water was warm. That's the thing about grey drizzly days. It's the difference that makes the water feel warm, and once you start working out, you are warm, so it doesn't matter anymore. But it sure makes it harder to show up, and get in!
Unfortunately there were no other kids, but the lifeguards were kind and let my daughter do laps beside me. We each had our own lane, with a total of 5 of us, and one lifeguard, long rain jacket donned, alternating in the chair. She has a wicked breast stroke kick, and I had a hard time keeping up with her. She gave me a few pointers, as did the supervising lifeguards, and we worked through a plan they had on a white board. I always do the lesser side, and today was no different. I was unable to do some of the drills as expected, instead just happy to be better than last year. I have little trouble with the drill of 2 kicks 1 breath in breast stroke, but I can still fail to breathe on 3 strokes in free, so I didn't even try the 6 strokes 1 breath that was proposed. I did get further than last week, managing 50 m breaststroke with the drill, and 100 m normally. I still struggle with the breathing on freestyle, and usual pant on the end after 25 m, even when I breathe every other stroke. The last 50 meters I managed to get halfway and breathe, a first with my butterfly stroke, only to meet the instructor running up to me to tell me I had used a breast stroke kick to do it! No wonder it seemed so easy! My last lap was a proper "fly", again only lasting half way, and feeling a little slower, but managing to catch a few breaths before pooping out and counting up what I had completed of the drills.
My daughter's upper lip was a little blue when I finished, but her grin was just a little bigger than when we started. She's a great little fish, and an inspiration I am happy to try and keep up to. We rinsed off in a warm shower, dried off and walked home in terry robes and sandals, and changed into winter pjs for the night.
Swimming is the perfect sport. Nobody I know gets injuries swimming. If you get hot, you don't notice because you are bathed in cool water so that you never sweat. If you aren't a swimmer, you have to admire the cardio of the ones who are, because they do lap after lap seemingly effortlessly. I am not stiff afterwards, barring the occasional calf cramp because I wasn't quite ready to do a butterfly stroke with dolphin kicks!
So my new personal record is 1050 meters, in 25 m and 50 m and one 100m drib and drabs. I am on my way to a sprint triathlon, only needing to swim 750m bike 40km and run 5. I have quite a bit of work to make it to a standard one (Olympic) of 1.5 km 80 km and 10 km. Hats off to those of you who can swim 4 km bike 190 and then run a marathon in the Ironman! I bought a $30 backpack with the name, but that's as close as I need to get!
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