Monday, August 22, 2011

New Swimmer - A "Serious Athlete"??

What a seriously fun morning I had!

My alarm went off at 5:15am. I didn't sleep at all. It was like the night before a race when you are too excited and nervous to sleep. After hitting the snooze once I got up, looked at my dog sprawled on the floor (the poor little girl didn't sleep last night - I forgot to leave the front door open and it got toasty in the house), and got dressed. My new swimming suit (red & black, my signature colors!), my new adidas pants (I can't get enough of adidas and these pants look way too cute on me, if I do say so myself), brushed my teeth and went out the door.

There you have it - me in a swimming suit with
NO make-up. What happened to me??
I was a little nervous about walking in, but I did it! The guy working the counter was really nice and welcomed me to the Y since it was my first day. I'm so glad my mom pointed out the locker room door - not sure I would have known. When I went in it was so unfamiliar. It didn't look at all like it did when I was in 6th grade. I panicked. Do I bring my towel? Do I leave it here? What do I do?? I thought of trying to text someone, but who?? So I locked it up and realized, just like with any race, I had nervous bladder. On my way to the potty I saw a sign saying "Please Dry Off Before Entering" - so I knew I had to go grab my towel. Phew! Hung it up, rinsed off and then made my way to the door. I opened it and was completely shocked to see a hot tub! No wonder I was so confused .... I was now in the "adult" locker room - what I used to be in is now the children's locker room. 

Timidly I walked through to the pool. I saw four women chatting away and bouncing around. I slipped quietly into the pool and an older gentleman starting talking to me. He told the ladies I was new to their class and they very quickly welcomed me, introduced themselves and asked all about me. I was immediately relaxed. I felt like I belonged and I was really happy I went! Soon more people arrived (I was there way early) and we all found places in the shallow end with our floaty water weights. Dude - those things are so much fun!!

The instructor spent a lot of time with me making sure I understood what all we were doing. That was awesome! In the end I counted 13 students and the instructor. Everyone was having side convos and it was just really relaxed. It was all women and two men - hmm.... don't remember them participating in the sagging boobs talk!  After warming up in the shallow area (ooh, we were in the warm pool, too!) we "bicycled" down to the deep end, which I think was 10 feet. Here we did abs and had more of a leg workout. I had a mild concern when we ditched the weights, went to the wall and had to kick. This is when the instructor asked if I could swim. I laughed and said, "Well yeah, I mean I'm still alive - but I can't do that." and pointed to the lap swimmers in the other pool. I think the kicking was my weakest part of the class - but that could also be due to the 9 miles I ran yesterday.

Eventually we bicycled back to the shallow end, switched out to different weights and do some arm work before our cool down. Okay - I kinda sucked here, too. I told them all I might be a runner, but my arms don't do anything. Oh yeah!!!! So when I first got in the ladies asked if I lived here. I said I did and that I run half marathons often and wanted something to do that was easier on my body for the off days. When our instructor arrived one of them said, "We have a new member ... and she's a serious athlete!" Ha - how flattering!

Class ended, I hurried off to the locker room and struck up conversation with another new member. On the way out of the Y I officially signed up for the class - so I'll be with all of this lovely, chipper women every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6am!

7 comments:

  1. Yay! glad you overcame the dreaded pool anxiety! you'll be a lap swimmer before you know it!

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  2. Sounds like fun. I can so relate to your "how do I not look like I don't know what I'm doing" self talk.. Did that make sense?

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  3. woo hoo! you go girl. get your swim on :)

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  4. Yay!! So glad you made it through the class!

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  5. YAY! You are totally a serious athlete. Love that you had a good time in the class.

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  6. Woot! Attending a new class can be nerve-wracking, but you handled it like a champ! Yes, you are a serious athlete. :)

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