Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A Different Kind of Swim

Last night at masters Sue (our coach) decided to do something different.  Since some of us with the group are triathletes she decided to take out all of the lane lines and we had an "open" water swim practice.  I thought it was fun, as it was something different as opposed to following that black line on the bottom of the pool!  We did quite a few different things, but I would have to say the most fun thing we did involved the craziness that is a diving well.  So we were supposed to swim 3 laps around the perimeter of the pool, no problem right.  Well when we arrived to the diving well portion of the pool they had turned the air vents at the bottom of the pool on to full blast...it was like swimming through a huge storm and completely destroyed you!  We were pushed all different directions and had to swim our way out of it.  It was definietly fun!!  The highlight of the night, for me at least, was a particular set that we did after our fun in the diving well.  So let me preface this with the fact that I don't think I've ever swam the length of a 25 yard pool under water.  We used to practice it once in a while a few years back, but I haven't done it for quite a while.  Well we were instructed to swim the width of the pool under water.  Typically that would be easier than the length, however the pool we swim in has 12 lanes...we figured out it was roughly 33.47 yards across.  My first attempt I was unsuccessful and I made it 10 out of the 12 lanes, but I realized that I really wimped out.  So I was determined on my second time that I would make it.  I did make it all the way across under water without taking a breath, and the really weird thing is that my legs hurt like crazy when I was done.  I'm not sure if it was the lack of oxygen to my muscles or what, but they hurt bad!!  Last night was definitely a nice change, it's hard to put a specific number on the yardage that we did, but I know that I got a solid set in because I was wiped when we were done!

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