Lungs, Not Gills

Last night was my first time swimming in, oh, about 10-12 years. I was on a swim team when I was much younger, around junior high age. Me and my sister both swam, neither of us very competitive (you know, because we were 10), but we could at least stay above water and reach the other end of the pool.

Thats about where I am now. Yesterday my coach, Susan, had me swim one length of the pool at the start. Honestly, I did a whole lot better than I had imagined I would. I actually made it to the other end without gagging on water! But, after that, came over an hour of drills. Drills kick my butt!

I only swam the one normal lap the whole night. I did a lot of side swimming and breathing exercises, which is apparently what I need. I think I swallowed more water last night than I'd drank all week! Except it didn't make it to my stomach, it consistently went straight to my lungs!

So, am I discouraged? Nope. Not at all. I would say I'm more fascinated than anything. Swimmers make all of it look so natural and easy, and I'm fairly clueless as to how as of right now. Although I will give myself some credit, because I definitely made a lot of progress in the 90 minutes I was swimming and I'm sure I'll make even more my next time to the pool!

Since last night, I started reading up on various swimming topics to try and pick up little tid bits of information here and there. I'm looking at form, training techniques, and, most importantly, etiquette. The first two are important because, well, if I can't do them, chances are I won't be getting a good workout in. The more efficient I can be, the better aerobic workout I will get overall.

Etiquette is really important to me too. Since I'm new, I really am wanting to avoid being 'that guy' at the pool who is being a pain the ass from not knowing all the rules of the game. Most of what I'm wanting to get down is how to share lanes, because that pool was really, really packed last night! I'd say there were about 15-20 lanes, and every lane at 2-5 people in it! I guess people really do take advantage of the world class facility we have at UK.

After swimming, I'm pretty sore. My ankles are really hurting because Susan had me wearing flippers for most of the drills. Besides that, my glutes and hip flexors are pretty sore too. Thats good, though, because a lot of the exercises I'm doing are designed to strengthen those areas. To me this translates swimming as fewer running injuries! My hip is feeling great today, maybe next week (I'm thinking Wednesday) I'll give that running thing another shot, if I remember how!