Since I'm nursing newly developed shin splints and I haven't swam in roughly 4 years despite the fact that my triathlon is a little more than 4 weeks away, I decided that it was time to hit the pool.
I got a guest pass to the YMCA (which was $60 for 14 visits) and had already bought a swimsuit and some goggles so I was all set. I arrived at the Y at 5am and did 20 minutes on the Arc Trainer to warm up and get the blood flowing and then I headed into the locker room to change into my swimsuit and hit the pool, which opened up at 5:30am. I figured I'd do an hour of swimming and then shower and head to work.
Holy hell, what was I thinking?!? AN HOUR?!? I swam roughly two laps and about died....my heart was pounding and I think I swallowed at least several cups of water already. I am actually an okay swimmer....I just lack um, technique. I do not have the whole breathing thing down with the freestyle swimming. I did a whole lot of arms flailing, gasping for air, arms flailing, gasping for air....rinse and repeat for a half hour.
Several times I had to flip over and do the backstroke just to catch my breath and other times I'd stop at the wall and rinse out my fogging goggles just to take a minute to decide whether or not my arms had fallen off and sunk to the bottom of the pool. Several times I considered just asking the lifeguard to rescue me and put me out of my misery. After 30 minutes I called it a day and headed back into the locker room. My arms and shoulders were already aching, I'm certain that I might not be able to lift them tomorrow. So I decided to go ahead and dry off, change back into workout clothes and walk a few laps on the track.
I analyzed what hurt and what didn't and I felt surprisingly achy...in good way. I'm excited to hopefully learn to better my technique and see if more triathlons are in my future.
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