First Swim!

Last Saturday I got in the pool for the first time in 14 years!

I'd been dreading this for a while but I figured the unknown (how bad my swimming really is) was worse than the known (it can't be that bad, right?), so I made a swim date with my friend/former competitive swimmer/former swim coach and off we went to a local community pool.

Ofcourse this was preceded with the painful experience of getting a one-piece swimsuit (who new getting a decent one piece would be harder than getting a bikini?), but that's a story for another day - or never - I digress.

So we meet at the pool, hop into our bathers and head for the pool deck. At this point I start to worry that the 1.5 hr lane swim time slot we've showed up for probably won't be enough time for me to even GET IN the water (it takes my FOREVER to get into anything below 24 degrees) but much to my surprise, the water is super warm and I jump in without a problem. (Family and friends : True story, no lie, I have a witness!)

Anywho, the next hour and a half was spent doing various 25m length combos to warm up, show my friend my front crawl, practice arms only, practice legs only, and then practice based on some specific feedback. Turns out my crawl isn't as bad as I thought. Granted, to date it's relied heavily on my kick and my arms have contributed nothing but a pretty little windmill movement but it's nothing a few tweaks can't fix (JD, I hope you were being honest and weren't just sugar-coating it :).

Needed tweaks:

- keep my hands closed
- rotate my body more in the water to get more power from my stroke
- extend my stroke all the way past my hips
- alternate breathing.

Overall I think I swam about 1km that day. Not bad for my first time out.

Here's a great vid my friend shared with me that addresses some of the issues listed above.