2010-08-12

Doing swimmingly, thanks for asking!

Yesterday was a very wet day.  I returned from my bike ride, and had a shower.  Made a tasty stir-fry dinner (yum!), then decided Loki needed a bath.  He smelled kinda funky...as he does sometimes, so he and I got to have a shower together (after he got a manicure and pedicure, to ensure I didn't get a new design on my face).

Kiefer and I finally sat down to have a relaxing evening and I remembered: Wednesday is lane swimming day for us!  OOPS!  So I noticed it was only 8:30, and lap swimming hours start at 8:45, so I announced that we need to go and we both jumped up off the sofa and started throwing everything together.  We got there by 8:50!

Now, some of you may already know this, because I like to talk about it a lot, but in high school I played water polo and swam competitively.  I "retired" when I went to college since they had neither a water polo team nor a swim team /sadpanda.  In hindsight, I wish I had taken some classes at the local community college and joined their team with my classmates, but hindsight is always 20-20.  So now that I am into triathlons I get to kick everyones butt in the swim portion (I usually come out in the first 1/2 to 1/3 of women out of the water) because most triathletes start as runners or cyclists.   I blast past them, literally swimming over people sometimes, even though I'd never gotten into the water between races.  Imagine how much I could improve if I actually practiced!!!  So I'm hitting the lanes in order to perfect my technique, and re-build my awesome swimmy endurance & speed.  My specialties were breaststroke and freestyle, and I always loved being the anchor for the relay!

Kiefer is there to learn how to swim 300m without stopping.  I have never instructed anyone on swimming technique before, so teaching him has been a learning experience for both of us.  It takes a lot of quick thinking to 1) determine what the problem is, 2) figure out how I would fix it if it was my problem, 3) figure out what someone ELSE needs to do to do the same thing, 4) determine how to TELL THEM what you mean in a way that will make sense, and finally 5) get them to do what you're telling them while remaining patient.  In the end it is extremely rewarding to see everything click into place!

Then I got to go home and have another shower to get the chlorine out.  I don't know what they treat the public pool with, but it's very salty in there!  By the way, if you like to get yucky stuff out of your hair after a trapse in the pool, I highly reccomend the  Swim & Sport Kid's Shampoo by L'Oreal.

Finally As a closing note, check out this other blog that Kiefer discovered!  It looks like this guy is getting out too!

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