All these weeks leading up to training, I've been worrying about the bike, the bike, the BIKE! Boy o boy, I should be worried about the swim. Everyone always asked me, aren't you worried about the swim? I always shrugged it off and said, I can swim, I just need to build my endurance.... Last night, I have doubts about my swimming abilities.
I started taking lessons last year to prepare for the swimming portion of training. I began to really enjoy swimming and got comfortable with it. Since the beginning of 2009, I slacked off in working out and haven't kept up with my swimming routine. It definitely hurt me during my first swim training for the season.
I get to the Glassell Park pool, in Eagle Rock. The pool facilities are nothing like the Rose Bowl Aquatics center so I'm glad I changed at work. Anyways, Coach Mike talks to us about what type of drills we're going to do. He shows examples with a mentor that's in the pool already.
Drill #1
Float on your back, arms to your side, and kick gently. "No problem, I can float"
Drill #2
Float on your back, arms to your side, and then turn your body completely to one side, come back up on your back and then turn again on the other side. All the while keeping your head looking straight up above the water. This is to simulate the motion you need to do while you are swimming. "OK, that looks kinda freaky, I think I need to start in the beginner lanes"
Drill #3
I forgot what this one was...you'll see why...
Drill #4
Being completely on your side, one arm stretched out head face the bottom of the pool, kicking. Come up for air when you need to. Repeat on other side when you return. "Seems OK, I think I can do it"
So coach separates us in Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced groups. According to the survey I filled out prior to practice, I should be in intermediate. I decide to go in the beginner group because I'm super nervous. This is probably the best thing I could've decided.
I get in and they do a warm up which is 2 laps of free style. Jumping in the pool late, I rush to the one end and am completely tired. Then back, EXHAUSTED! I wait there to catch my breath and then the Assist. Coach looks at me and asks, "did you do 2 laps?" I said "no". Then she motions for me to go again. Exhausted and not ready, I go anyways. Big mistake. Now I feel how I did when I first started to learn. I don't know what the heck I'm doing. So I come back already feeling defeated. So we begin the first drill. The "easy one". Just lie on your back and kick, easy enough, I've done it many times. WRONG. For some reason I couldn't keep my head afloat. My head kept sinking, I was struggling to breath, swallowed lots of water both up my nose and through my mouth. I some how made it across the pool, last of course. Do it again back the other way, same thing, same struggles. Again go back one more time, THIS time, I somehow didn't go in a straight line went completely horizontal, that was embarrassing to find myself on the opposite side of the pool. At that point, I knew I needed to relax and just work on this before I could move on. Everyone else continued with the other drills and I still stayed working on the first one. One of the Captains was staying with me helping me try to figure out how to do the float. Finally I got it. So then I tried to do Drill #2. I kinda was getting it but every now and then my head was falling underwater. After one only lap of that, it was time for us to get out of the pool. We aren't allowed to stay longer because the pool stays open for us and we have to get out at 8pm.
So I don't remember what Drill #3 is because I never got to do it. At the end, I saw that there was another guy who was having problems with the floating part too. I will be practicing the drills because I have no idea why I couldn't do them. Maybe I was over thinking, or was I nervous, or I was over confident with the swim. I don't know. All I do know, is that I need a lot of work.
Saturday is our first run practice. That's a joke too since I hate running. Maybe I can have a disaster title for each leg......hahahaha
I'm not beat up over this, I knew going into this training that I would need help from the get go, so I'm taking it all in and am determined to be a rockstar come September =)
