Muse back!
October 27, 2006 / Friday
24 Hour Murkiness
I finally went to (try to) swim at the gym tonight. I've been meaning to do it, but with swimming lessons every MWF this past month it was too easy to blow off the in between days. Now I have some cramming to do. I want to learn to scuba for my sailing trip in January. I'm signed up for a 3.5 week class that started tonight. The class comes with a requirement, though: I have to be able to swim 200 meters without stopping and tread water/float for 10 minutes. The test is next Thursday.
That finally got me to drag myself to the murky pool at the Sunnyvale 24hF for some practice. I've known for a while that I should go, but was avoiding it because I find most 24hF facilities to be fairly nasty. I drank less pool water than usual, but still enough for me to worry a bit about pool murkies growing in my stomach. Grodyness.
You know how I've been flip-flopping between being able to do the freestyle and the breaststroke? Tonight proved to be a freestyle-unfriendly night. I couldn't make it more than 10 yards. I'm having trouble getting air without gulping water. Too much tweaking of the head lately, methinks. The breaststroke, however, felt much better than it has previously. I think it's because I've totally slowed it down. I'm still doing a funny stroke to bob for air, but I at least made it down the 20 yard length of the pool with that one. Now I just need to multiply that by 11.
Some people there were doing this breaststrokey looking thing with their head completely out of the water the entire time, with no bobbing. How do they do that?
I hung out in the deepest section of the pool (a whopping 4 1/2 feet) and tried to eggbeater. Still does not lift me one bit. So I tried to hang out and bob every once in a while. Definitely can't do that for 10 minutes. So I tried floating on my back. My legs would sink. So I tried kicking them to not sink. That rippled water up my nose. Bah.
I'd like to go back tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I can find time. That pool is usually packed until late in the evening. I don't really want to go swimming at 11 PM every night. It really messes with the schedule.
Skin so dry! My arms actually felt tired from applying moisturizer just now.
October 27, 2006 01:01 AM | Water
Comments
When I was learning to tread, I found it much harder to do it in 4ft. of water than 8ft. I had to pull my knees almost up to my chin, then kick and scull in this cramped, folded-up way; not particularly educational. To pass the swim portion of my scuba course, I sidestroked for a long time (everyone else moved on to treading), then floated on my back and counted stars (evening class in an outdoor pool in S.F.). After that, class got considerably easier!
Posted by: Wendy at October 27, 2006 01:47 PM
I guess my problem is I don't have a pool deep enough to practice treading much. I'm hoping to work on swimming more by myself at the gym and then on treading in the 7 foot section of the pool at class on Wednesday.
Posted by: Viv at October 27, 2006 01:50 PM
Good plan. You can go back to the 4ft. section after you've gotten a feel for it in deeper water, but I found it quite difficult the other way around. (Occasionally, Judy and I "tread" at each other at the lap pool, but never for very long; one feels a bit silly all folded up like that!)
Posted by: Wendy at October 27, 2006 02:10 PM