Thursday, November 01, 2007

Water up my nose and other beautious things

Session One -- done!

I forgot how much I totally MISS swimming! It's the only one of these dang sports that I actually like to do (alright, that may be an exaggeration, but it does come a little easier than the others). So my triumphant return to the pool last night was glorious.

Okay.

So.

There was no fanfare and, frankly, the only person there when I arrived was a bratty coed practically yelling her conversation with the lifeguard, who apparently was a friend of hers, about how she just has to make it to all her classes tomorrow otherwise she's in soooo much trouble. Thrilling, let me tell you.

But I didn't really care. Because I was in the pool again. Woot, Woot!

And here are the lessons I learned...

(1) kicking on my back is much easier than I thought,

(2) kicking on my stomach is just as hard as I expected,

(3) I'm likely to get water up my nose (buckets full, actually) at least once while backstroking for the first time,

and,

(4) Boy, do you lose a lot of swim endurance when you're away from the pool for that long.

In the end, it was a nice little 45 minute package of kicking my heart rate back off the couch and into some higher zones. I'm no longer afraid of backstroke, although I look ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY RIDICULOUS swimming that way.

But I trust my coach implicitly and when she says 25 free/25 back/25 free, I do just that. Even if it's an awkward snotty endeavor.

Booyah.


PS -- Who starts their base training on Halloween??? It was a Herculean effort to not touch the candy last night. Huuuuge effort. But I was good and didn't crest the slippery slope. Problem is? There are at least 3 bags of chocolate goodness left at the house. Fingers crossed that Mighty M took them to work with him. Otherwise, I'm going to be the creep on the street corner trying to give away candy the day after Halloween.

11 comments:

the Dread Pirate Rackham said...

Woo woo!

let's hear it for the BackStroke, baby!

LBTEPA said...

there's always the bin for the chocolate.
We bought one bag of minis to give away (not many kids are into Halloween here) and there are about 10 left - trouble is my daughter wants one a day for her dessert so I have to resist them!!!
Can you ask you coach why you have to do backstroke? (I'm a terrible stickybeak)

Tea said...

Every time I read your blog, I like you more and more! I've taken not even a week off from the pool (too much birthday cake....let's just not even go there, k?), and I'm wondering how I'm going to feel next week when IM ABLE to squeeze back into my swimsuit.

Benson said...

Swimming as always the first thing we lose fitness on. I'm right there with ya and will be getting back in the pool...soon.

The Stretch Doc said...

dang I feel like a chump! I gotta get to da pool!!!

rockon`

MtngirlinCali said...

You have my admiration for starting training on Halloween AND turning the cold shoulder to the chocolate goodness.

How is the new bike treating you? Sorry to probe, but I'm thinking of upgrading mine and am stuck at the tri bike/road bike dilemma....was curious how your tri bike was treating you?

Robert Barker said...

while recovering from an injury I went to the pool. I have to admit that I am not a good swimmer, I am ok. But the pool doesn't give me the warm fuzzies that running does, I envy your passion of it. Great job.

Robert Barker said...

while recovering from an injury I went to the pool. I have to admit that I am not a good swimmer, I am ok. But the pool doesn't give me the warm fuzzies that running does, I envy your passion of it. Great job.

ShirleyPerly said...

Good job getting back to the pool. I have to admit that I'm actually liking swimming and more likely to swim than run these days, which is HUUUGE for me.

However, I actually went to Walmart this weekend and bought some leftover Halloween candy that was on sale. If I only could be as disciplined as you!

Steve Stenzel said...

HALLOWEEN?! That's a crazy time to start back!!

Brent Buckner said...

Good call to start back for Hallowe'en - that way you aren't compounding issues.

Nice to be back in the pool!