Starting to Swim

Oct 18, 2013

So the first thing one needs is a pool! Recently I decided to go into work by  10am on Fridays, giving myself an easy morning. Suddenly that morning has changed to Swim Day. The Boys and Girls Club near the warehouse has morning lap swim, I visited to get schedule and pricing, and then eagerly awaited the day.

Lap Swim: width only (short end taken up by water exercise class) at the far end of the pool. No one could tell me how wide the pool was, but I decided to try to keep track of how many laps I swam anyway. With a rudimentary counting system, I jumped in and decided to swim for about a half hour. I found that while swimming is boring and hard to listen to music or otherwise entertain oneself, it is a great time to work on memorizing Greek forms; worked on the Article paradigm!

Swam about 40 minutes, struggling for breath. Could not swim crawl at all (too much wheezing!) Swam leisurely backstroke, sidestroke, breastroke, anything to keep going! Kept the pace slow so I could keep breathing.

Swam 28 laps, then got out and walked heel-toe along the edge of the pool, counted 52 lengths. On my way out the class instructor whispered to me conspiratorily: "45 feet!" When I looked surprised, she said, "I saw you!"

Did the math: 28 times 15 x 2 = 840 yards! My goal is 880. Not bad! I was exhausted and cold for a long time (warehouse is chilly) and decided a swim cap might not be such a bad idea.