Having my only experiences in swimming be from family trips to a river an hour and half away from our home in central California, the beach before I was in second grade, and the few times I played in a friends pool in high school I am keenly aware that my weakest leg in the Ironman will be the swimming portion. In fact, it's so obvious to me that sometimes I feel like a giant sign with the word SWIMMING in white letters appears over me. None of this worries me though. I don't think I'm in too bad of shape that I can't make it with a lot of hard training over eight months. But, also knowing that I'll need help in this the most I signed up for a swimming class with our community's parks and rec (biparks.org).
My first session in the Adult Skill Builder II class was this past Tuesday, the 17th of September. So, with my brand new goggles that I proudly purchased at a discount price of $5 at Target, I excitedly attended the first session. (I was a bit anxious in the free time I had at home before the class. Without thinking I did something that gave me great comfort when I was growing up, I laid down on my bedroom floor and stared at the ceiling. My Airedale Terrier, Cheddar Pancakes, joined me and provided an extra sense of calm. She let me snuggle with her for the thirty minutes before I had to go.) The class consists of four students (myself included), of which I am the least skilled as the others all know how to breath properly; you know the technique where you inhale through the side of your mouth and exhale through your nose in the water. That's OK, my main reason for signing up for class was to learn that skill.
We did various things to build our basic skills; swam with boards, put on fins, used only our upper body or lower body, etc. Those were all well and good until I actually tried breathing properly while swimming freestyle. I'll just say this; I have never felt so uncoordinated in my life! There were so many things going on as I tried that one activity, my brain couldn't keep up with all the orders to give my different body parts and organs. It was total chaos!
After pushing off the wall and surfacing my arms started moving forward, then my legs started kicking at the same time I took a breath with my head turned left. Having to exhale right away my mind commanded my head to face down in the water and force air through my nose, creating lots of tiny air bubbles (woohoo! I actually did it w/o breathing in water). I was so focused on exhaling though that my legs would stop kicking, then when I would remember to kick my arms would do more of a thrashing motion while my face would go from in the water to turning left, back in, turn right, in, left, in, left, in, right, waaah! my right arm just splashed water at my face, back in. By this time my too short to tie back hair was plastered to my face with its ends just barely in my mouth (which reminds me, I need to by a swimming cap before next class!).
As my friend who grew up swimming competitively put it, you didn't drown and you exhaled through your nose, that's a win.
- ELo
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