Swim Practice - Better Late Than Never

Last night I joined up with the Philadelphia FINS for their Monday night practice at Friends Select School. I was going to arrange for private swim lessons through the West Philly YMCA, but a friends suggested I try this out instead. A swim team? I've never swam in a lap pool before and my experience doesn't go beyond breaststroke and doggie paddle. I mean, I can swim, but not far or fast. I was nervous when I got to the pool. I'm not socially inept, but I get nervous meeting groups of people for the first time and you never know how people are going to be. Friendly? Cliquish? Standoffish?

I get to the pool and another swimmer introduced herself and welcomes me and starts to explain how things work. I then talk to another newcomer for a bit and then meet the coach who was very nice and asked us a few questions about our experience level (uh, none) and went over some things to know. I was assigned Lane 6, the beginner lane and that was totally fine with me! Another member, who I believe was the president, introduced himself and welcomed me to the team and then we got into the water and started. So far so good!

Coach wrote up Lane #6's drills on the wipe board at the end of our lane and everything was explained to us. There were six people in my lane and everyone was really helpful and fun. It was a diverse mix of swimmers - some were there for fitness, some for tri training, some just fun. One dude asked me when my tri was and I told him two weeks to which his eyes bulged and he retorted, "Mine is in four months and I'm so glad I started early!" Yes, I know I'm a bit late in the game with the swim thing. Anyhoo, we warmed up with 25 m of freestyle that I labored though. Next up we swim for 600 m, focusing on using the kickboard, pushing off the wall with our hands over our head and lifting our arms and elbow out of the water as much as possible. I'm still struggling with my breathing and I'm getting really tired - this is hard! Luckily everyone in my lane was giving me advice, as well as the coach, on how to improve my breathing. I needed to slow down and take my time, but if I slowed down anymore I would sink! Well, I didn't and by slowing shit down, my breathing started to get better. Progress!

We ended with a few more hundred meters of swimming and I swallowed a few gallons of water in the process but I can honestly say I improved over my last attempt at swimming at Lake Wenonah. I no longer feel like I'm going to drown during the tri, but it's still going to be very, very difficult. I have 2, possibly 3 more swim practices so I'm going to work hard and hope for the best! Just gotta make it through the swim so I can get on my bike and then life will be good again!