Went to the Y around 1 and after I checked in, I went over to peak and see if there were any lanes free in the pool. Oh no! There's somebody in every lane and they all look like real swimmers! Then I went to the desk to buy my swim cap and tried to play it cool by casually asking the lady about lap swimming etiquette (ie Is it okay for a newbie like me to use the pool with these real swimmers?!). With her reassuring encouragement, I headed nervously down to the locker room.
Imagine my relief when I passed a person with goggles on my way out to the pool and realized that I might have a lane all to myself...whew! I also was relieved to see a friendly face at the pool: my friend Geoff was there while his son was taking swimming lessons! A quick hello and then I went to claim my lane before anyone else could.
I'd like to take this moment to thank my Mom and Dad for taking me to swimming lessons when I was a kid. I don't remember much about the actual lessons, but I somehow have managed to retain enough from 15 years ago to remember "1, 2, 3, breathe" to swim freestyle. The race is 500yards...that's 10 laps. Today I swam...500yards. Not bad for someone who hasn't swum regularly in 15 years (Mom, am I remembering right...was I around 7? Or older?)!! I mean, I have never been a lap swimmer and have only ever swum recreationally (as in playing in the ocean, river, pond, creek, lake or pool). Now don't get too excited - I'm not ready for race day yet. I didn't swim 500yards without stopping, but rather paused at each end of the pool. Don't forget to breathe! Try not to breathe in any water! After my first lap and a half, I had to practice the breathing pattern by sticking my face in the water for a while. That's when I had an "ah ha" moment of realizing I need to keep my head as close to the top of the water as I can. I was relearning how to do this thing that I learned to do so long ago.
I swam two laps freestyle, followed by one lap backstroke, repeated three times and capped off with a last freestyle lap. At the beginning of my third cycle through, a man approached and asked to share my lane. "Sure, but I have to warn you...I'm not very good." I felt the need to warn him...I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stick to my side, but he didn't care. He just wanted some space to do his thing. Hmmm, okay, well now I know how to approach someone to share a lane in future. I managed not to collide with him for my remaining laps, and gained the confidence of sharing space and holding my own.
I know I will need to come up with a good training plan and I might benefit greatly from taking a refresher swim lesson, but my goal was to swim once this week and I did just that. It was somehow fitting to have me beginning my triathlon swimming training on one end of the pool while my dear friends' son was beginning his swimming training on the other end of the pool. We were both learning in the pool today and that made the experience even sweeter.