Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Master Bits

I am planning on writing a FULL report on my very first Master's Swim, however to devote the time it takes to write the post that I want - I'll simply fall asleep at the computer.

So yeah, I'm tired.

4:30 am wake-up call tired.

(Yawn)

However, here are a few fub highlights from my very first session. :)

-I started in the second slowest lane, and then kept moving to the right. From one lane to the next. Until I was in the third fastest lane. At which point I was (stifled laugh) assigned to be the Lane Leader. Ha! And I thought it would be easy - but now I was forced to count my laps. (Horror of horrors!) As I loose count all the time... Now I was respnosible not only for myself, but for all my fellow lane buddies. Yikes!

-The oldest person at the swim practice was 82. And she gets the most points for the team... because she's the only one entered in the evets. I was so surprised at the range of ages. It was incredibly motivating to see people my parent's age (and older) lining up at 5:20 am. It gives you hope... (And now I know how I'll win my AG in Hawaii...by attrition...when I'm 82. :)

-The predicted morning thunderstorms never materialized, but the sky was a greenish orangeish hue near the end of our practice. An indication of the second coming? Nope - just me diving off the blocks (for the first time!)

-I have never done so much butterfly in my life. Ever. A whole, whopping 150 yards total with everything combined. I lasted pretty well for about, oh, 18 yards. The final 7 are more "butter flop" than anything else. But I'm working...

-The water was warmer than the pool at UWF

-And no - not because I peed.

-I didn't pee. Honestly! Apparently I'm fine on my own. But when I'm surrounded by 20 or 30 other swimmers, I can't go. Never a problem at a race - but at the pool this morning no go.

-Diving off the blocks for the first time was way different than I thought. I actually understood how Elizabeth's husband could do a knee flop. Pow! The thought crossed my mind more than once - luckily I didn't embarass myself too much. I wobbled a little on top of the blocks (wow - the view of the pool from the top is a lot higher than it appears from the pool...) The sound of my legs slapping the water on the first dive was priceless - but I did't loose my goggles. Or get too much water up my nose.

-I made my lane buddies annoyed by my cheerful quip (before every set), "Okay - here we go! Have fun!"

On our last set of pulls, Kathy remarked, "I know I know - we'll try to have fun. You have fun."

-Listening to the older folks talk about open water swimming and how much they enjoyed it was very moving. They didn't care about the cold, going fast, racing. They just wanted to swim in the beautiful water. And it was contagous. (I may have told Coach about this - knowing how enthusiastic about Open Water swimming she is... I have a feeling I'll be doing more and more...)

And if I get eaten by a shark - well - I'll just push someone else infront of me and swim like hell the other way. :)

-I finally GOT what everyone else is raving about.

Master's is fun. It was a blast! I still have a lot to figure out, where to place myself - but gosh darn it, the other swimmers are good folks, enthusiastic about the water, and happy-go-lucky at 0530.

What more could you ask for?

Now if you'll excuse me, it's 9:22 pm. I'm beat. I'm tired. And I can barely keep my eyes open. Let me guess - my 82 year-old new found friend is probably up, chipper, and raring to go! I'm about half way through my actual blog about Masters - but it'll have to wait. So I just wrote a few bits in the meantime.

I never realized that swimming could be so much fun. Huh. You go through your life doing one thing one way...and then when it's different, it's like the world itslef looks different. I feel like before my adventure this morning I was swimming in black-and-white.

And now my swimming world is filled with beautiful and vibrant colors. To be continued (in color).

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You survived and had a fun?! A+ for you! Great job on your first Masters...you will be swimming in the fast lane soon! =}

Pedergraham said...

Awesome, Marit. So glad it went well!!! Hope you had a good sleep.

Ryan said...

fifteen...., sixteen...., seventeen...., CRAP! Am I on eighteen or starting eighteen? Just another reason I will never be lane leader in a Masters Program: Short Attention Span! Oh, and I can't do the butterfly.

Anonymous said...

Music to my ears!! :) Jen H.

Beth said...

I'm glad you had such a great experience! Masters is a lot of fun!! Of course leading the lane is a different story. Keeping track of what interval to leave off of and actually keeping track of laps? VERY hard when you are swimming hard!! :)

Bob Mitera said...

When peeing in a swim practice make sure you do a flip turn and go into a lane one or two lanes over from your lane. In college, on long sets the guys and gals used to cross over into each others lanes - let fly - and then return to their lane...all while holding insanely fast intervals. This is a skill you should master. Fly can wait. Breastroke is what real swimmers do best anyway - it uses the most muscles which is why it is slowest for most people. Love the cat! She is our cat's soul mate. (Although he only occasionally attacked my mother's ankles.)

BreeWee said...

So cool- I am inviting you to our masters:

Who: Marit C
What: invitation to swim with Kona Aquatics
When: anytime she gets her butt to Kona
Why: Because she would LOVE it!

Glad you had fun... just watch out for the day your coach tells you to take a 101 class... that hurts

Anonymous said...

as someone who has been a swim team-er from the ages of 7 to 20, I can speak to how much more fun and motivating it is to swim on a team rather than on your own.

That said, I would rather quit triathlon rather than have to wake up before 6 AM (let alone before 5!) regularly for swim practice!

good on you for doing it - you'll see some positive results as long as you don't push too hard on a regular basis. masters swimmers can push hard every day and be fine, whereas triathletes....no. i got severely overtrained in Boulder when I tried to lead the lane everyday at Flatirons' master workouts in addition to all the cycling and running we have to do.
the lesson: go hard 1-2 days a week, and then go last in your lane and take it easy the other days. Or just swim on your own on non-hard days.

Marit C-L said...

Hi Guys - here are the responses:

Katie - love your blog, thanks for all of your comments... we'll see about the "fast lane" :)

Danielle - Oh yeah, I was sawing wood (uninterrupted!) for 9+ hours. As someone who wakes up in the middle of the night, this was great.

Ryan - get your butt to practice after you kick major bootay at the Marathon! :) And yup, I did loose count.

Jen H - thanks...

Beth - can't wait to hear all about your swim! And my lane buddies made sure I went off on the right interval (they wanted as much rest as possible!)

Bob - what? OHMYGOSH! People peed in the pool in each OTHERs lanes? Eeewwwww! But... quite an impressive feat.... makes me wonder...

Bree - I accept! When I get to Kona (one day), I'll join you for Masters. Hopefully I won't be, like 82 when that happens. :)

Greg - OHMYGOD - you're Greg Remaly. You are SO SO SO FAST! Holy cow - I can't believe that you read my blog! (I've been meaning to write that since I first saw your name... but couldn't find the right outlet.) You are SUPER FAST! Thanks for your advice... Coach Jen will only have me swim with them 1-2 times per week. So that's a good thing. Speaking of which, tomorrow I've got a 10 X 100 Swim TT. On my own. So I'll be peeing in the pool...