I got there on time and I wasn't the only new person there. I had emailed the coach that I was interested and that I wanted to start so I was planning on meeting him. However, he wasn't there and a different coach was there. Not too big of a deal but I had just expected to talk to Ben (the coach) or at least he would be aware that I was starting fresh. I had to fill out some paperwork and then it was time to get into the pool. I have swum at this pool when I was a teenager and we were swimming in the deeper pool. But it wasn't as deep as I thought. I jumped in and I scratched up my whole left foot. Not a great way to start but I tried to stay positive. We warmed up and then it began.
Let's just say I had a different vision in my head of how "good" I was. In the summer and fall of 2012, I had been in the pool at least 4 days a week. True, I was teaching swim lessons and swimming laps during my 10 minute break or swimming for 45 minutes not having a work out plan. Just swimming. I thought I'd be pretty good and that once I started it'd come back to me. Well, it did come back to me. It came back and smacked me in the face. I kinda forgot about how intense intervals can be and how many sets we have to do of one thing. I wasn't in Kansas anymore, that was for sure. As I processed the practiced some "lightbulbs" came to me. Some during practice (thank goodness) and some after practice.
Lightbulb #1: I had a baby 6 months ago. I was "out of commission" for over a year, close to a year and a half of working out. The fact that I was committed to getting into shape and start swimming again was enough. I needed to recognize that. I'm okay.
Lightbulb #2: Don't give up. So there's this trick, and I'm sure every sport has something like this, when you get tired, make up that some body part of your's hurts. "Oh, my shoulder hurts." "Oh, I got a foot cramp." I can't tell you how tempted I was to pull one of those during practice but then I thought, "What good would that do me? Just finish your set." If I don't give up at least I can say it was hard, but I didn't stop, I honestly finished the work out.
Lightbulb #3: Just make your intervals. (Intervals are times; so you do a certain amount of laps in a certain amount of time.) These are decided by the coach. Sometimes you just need to lower your time each time you finish your set. That's what I did. Once I realized Lightbulbs #1 and #2, I had to tell myself to just make the times. They were realistic and doable, so do it. And I did. I make every interval for every set. And when the coach told us to improve our time, I at least maintained my time and something improved my time. Hooray!
Lightbulb #4: The last one. Every time I had started swimming for a team or for a clinic, we were all starting off together. Rarely was someone joining later. That meant that the coaches would ease us into the work out, not just shove the hard stuff in our face and ask us to do it. That's not the case here. I was the one joining later, everyone else had been swimming for months and had built up their strength. I'm not there yet but I'm going to be and that's okay with me.
My biggest hope was that the coach that was there, and when Ben shows up, will see that I have the technique and the skills, I just need to build my strength up again. My mom, who babysat for us while I was at the pool, and my husband asked the same question, "Are you going back on Wednesday?" I said, "Of course!" It will only get better and easier from here on out.
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