Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Flopping Like a Fish

Let me give you a back story to Anne and Swimming. I used to be a competitive swimmer and water polo player... and I hated running. I would do sports like soccer and basketball, but really despised any drill that involved loads of running. With waterpolo, I cranked out laps like there was no tomorrow. We basically did just a ton of freestyle (head up and normal) so I got fast enough to be competitive in that stroke and I got picked up by a local competitive swim team (in addition to the water polo team I played for). I dreamed of being an Olympic swimmer until I was stopped dead in my tracks... at age 14, I was required to swim a minimum of 6 times a week. Given that the practices were in the morning or evening (you could pick them), I figured this wasn't so bad. By the time I was 16 though, I was required to do a minimum of 10-12 practices a week. 2 hours of swimming per practice, morning and night. Forget it. I quit competitive swimming and my water polo days also drew to a close when I started getting bruised bones and emerged from the water bleeding from various places after a shift. No fun. I basically gave up swimming altogether after the competitiveness ruined the sport for me... the nail was in the coffin when I tore my peroneal in 2007 and the motion of flutterkick was agony.

Fast forward to 2012 and I'm back in the pool. I can't remember the last time I went to Walter Baker for the purpose of actually doing a lane swim, but it must've been a while ago because they've managed to renovate the renovations. Unfortunately the one massive downside to being the only sports complex in Barrhaven (Sportsplex doesn't really count since it's outside of Barrhaven's borders) for the better part of 40 years is that over those 40 years, Barrhaven has gotten HUGE. The pool was jam packed. I remember adult swims being a lot quieter. To be fair, there was an Aquafit class on until 8:30 pm and the deep pool was being taken up by synchronized swimmers. Even the shallow pool was closed because they were short on lifeguards. So maybe it was a bit of a skewed evening, but it was busy nonetheless. I took a glance up to the exercise room that overlooks the pool area. I ran my first real mile up there. It was a bit of a touching moment, really.

I started in the "fast" lane. I figured I probably still had it in me. At the risk of sounding racist, there were a lot of slow-moving Asians there, so the slow/medium lanes were out anyway. I figured a 2000m swim would be doable in 45 minutes. I did about 2 laps before huffing and puffing and feeling a huge burn in my arms. Am I really this out of shape? But I run 26:00 5Ks! This can't be! I was like a 200 lb whale when I swam before. I guess whales are good swimmers, after all...

I swam for about 30 minutes, alternating different strokes. The 400m IM plan went out the window. I just did whatever I could struggle through. It was humiliating. I got lapped by a bald fat guy. I gave in at about 8:40 pm. I'd had it. I started making my way to the changeroom and then took a glance at the now-free portion of the pool that the Aquafit people had been using. Maybe I could go for a run...

I sometimes do shallow water running when I'm at WBSC, but since the shallow pool was closed, it hadn't crossed my mind to try it elsewhere. It went well, for about the first 10 metres. The 25m pool at WBSC starts shallow for the first 10 metres (about 3-4 ft), and then steadily drops to about 7ft midway through the pool, then in the last 4-5 metres, it rises back to a depth of around 4 ft. In my 10 metres of 7 ft water, I basically looked like a dying fish. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I don't do deep water running and it sure as hell sounded a lot easier than it was! I could only do what felt something like a cross between kicking and running. I wasn't quite sure what the point of it was, but dammit, it was better than nothing. I completed about 6 laps of this, which was a really big feat because it took a solid 2 minutes to get across the pool. I could see the lifeguard eyeing me, unsure if I was a distressed non-swimmer, or just a moron. I assured him it was the latter.

I tip-toed (NB: bring flip flops) back to the changerooms after my little session. I'm still questioning whether or not I got a true cross-training night in. I did do about 40 minutes of activity, and I've always found it hard to gauge whether or not I'm having a tough workout in a pool because you can't really tell if you're sweating, so I'll call it a mediocre win. I have higher hopes of tomorrow hot power/hot yoga/hot pilates/hot martial arts session with one of the Senators trainers in Little Italy. I may give the swimming thing a go again, but will perhaps try the Sportsplex (though, Walter Baker has always been "my place"). I figure there are so many cross training activities for me to try that I might have to keep swimming a non-regular thing. I just wasn't "feeling it" the way I used to. I'm a bit disappointed that the fire wasn't re-ignited.

Up on the docket tomorrow is a 3 mile pace run, as per Week 2-2, plus the aforementioned 1.5 hours of death. I don't even know how to dress for yoga. This is going to be a spectacle and a half...

1 comment:

  1. Hey, if you didn't drown, I call it a win.

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