'No, sir. Too long for Dick and too short for Richard, sir,' said Vimes, focusing on a point a few inches above Rust's head.
'What?'
'Neither one thing nor t'other, sir.' --Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
The pool was packed this morning.
To say I am a whiny baby about pool use density would be an understatement, mind you. I grumble internally when I have to share a lane no matter how cheerfully I smile at someone wanting to join me,* and I never even have to circle swim. In fact, I dread circle swimming and am scared of it.
Why?
Okay, so I'm a slow swimmer, true. But I am faster than most of the swimmers who are there for general exercise who are not really athletes (or wanna be athletes).
I am also much slower than the real athletes, and we don't have any designations for lane speed at our pool. (It usually isn't that crowded, so isn't an issue).
If it gets really busy, I expect things will sort themselves out, and I'll at least accept circle swimming with no more a grumble than I accept splitting lanes now.
What I really should be focusing on is getting my flip turns down. I'm practicing them and while I can do one without kicking my lane mate, I don't have that tight flip and push-off judged to the fine degree that more experienced swimmers do. I still worry about getting that proper gulp of air and pull out of the glide too quickly because I midjudged when to breathe before the flip.
Why flip turns if I'm going for open water?
That's a good question. The only real answer I have is pretty much that in my mind "real swimmers" can do flip turns, so I need to learn how to do them.
And hey, I've never learned a skill and then was sorry in retrospect that I did, so why not?
____________________________________________________________
* I have to put my inner three year old in time out for this one. They paid to use the pool, same as me.
1 comment:
Flip turns make sense, even if you're doing open-water training: You are constantly in motion with flip turns. You don't ever get even that teensy bit of a break that you do when you *don't* do flip turns. That, and it does help your breath timing, too. =) Don't worry, you'll get it down. Just takes a little practice.
I hear you on lane sharing, though.
Post a Comment