Week 13: Confidence Boost

Annah:

8/24/2013

Today was a wonderful day.  Clint, Silena and I went with Francie to Upton Lake, a 1/2-mile x 1/4 mile, family-owned lake in Alabaster.  Mr. Upton was so generous to invite us to practice there.  He and his lovely family were spending the day at one of the lake houses.  It is a beautiful, man-made lake, clean with a gravelled bottom.  We had gorgeous weather.  Best of all, no alligators!

I felt surprisingly nervous before the swim, but mostly just excited to be swimming in open water, finally!  This was the first time Clint and I had ever practiced together, and I knew he would be faster than me. This didn't bother me; I know I have the time and motivation to work on speed.  But I didn't want to hold him back.

On our first length, I realized I should have stretched more and warmed up before starting. I felt stiff and tired.  I had trouble staying on course, and had no experience sighting.  I was amazed at how different it feels to get winded ... but not be able to stop at the end of a lap lane!  I also realized I should have eaten more than a small piece of toast for breakfast.  Clint quickly pulled ahead of me.  I wasn't surprised at the difference in our speeds.  I didn't feel anxious at all, because I have so many memories of swimming in Lake Castle in Madison, MS.  Plus, I knew if I truly got exhausted, I could always just float!

Once he made it to the other side, he waited for me and treaded water, something we'll have to do a lot of, in order to be able to "feed" during swims.  Once I caught up, we both treaded for a while and reviewed.  The second length back felt much easier.  I was more warmed up and confident.  I really enjoyed the water, which was in the high 80's - almost too warm!  I still wasn't relaxed and wasn't really stetching out my strokes, yet.  We got out, and I drank all of Silena's water, because I had forgotten to bring my own - another mistake!  By this point, we had swum over half a mile.

Clint said, "Ok, here's what I think we should do.  We should swim all the way across and back without stopping and then do it again, no stops."  I felt pretty confident I could go across and back with a stop at the dam, but did not think I could go farther than that, stops or no stops.  But, I said I would try!  We went across and I stayed closer to Clint's speed than I had before, although he did pull away once in the middle of the lake.  I stayed in a much straighter line during this third length, especially while following his bubble trail.  I kept better track of the point on the shore I had chosen to sight.  Clint made it to the dam and treaded while I caught up.  Then, I flip-turned and kept going!  But it wasn't easy!

I kept breathing bilaterally and evenly during the fourth length.  Form was good. But shoulders and neck got tired. In a rhythm. Daydreaming.  At the other side suddenly.  My time was becoming a couple of minutes slower on each length, according to Clint's watch.  We stopped for only a few minutes on the shore.  Clint said we should keep going. He said I could always get into the pontoon boat with the Uptons, if I had to.  (The pontoon was near the dam.)  This convinced me to keep going, even though I didn't think I could make it to the dam.  During this fifth length, I struggled to keep going.  I counted, "one, two, three."  I sighted by: side breathing on the right and then looking straight ahead as my right hand entered the water.  When talking to Clint later, I found out this is backward, so I was probably wasting energy.  Toward the end of the length, I had to backstroke.  I made it to the dam.

I called to Clint, "I'm getting in the pontoon boat!"  Clint called back, "You're not getting in the pontoon!  You're gonna do this!  That's not the shore of the lake!  That's Morocco!"  So I kept going ... out of pride.  We headed back to Silena and Francie.  I was even slower during this sixth length.  Twice, I had to switch to backstroke, because my shoulders were so tired.  But ... I made it!!

At first, Clint and I thought we had swum about 1.5 miles.  It turns out that we swam 1.76 miles!  That is 3,150 yards.  That is the equivalent of 63 laps in a pool, but without flip turns and kick offs.  That is the equivalent of 31.5 football fields ... with resistance.  That is pretty cool.