Despite being a very nonthreatening shade of baby blue, my recently-purchased goggles nonetheless give me a certain sense of invincibility when I hit the pool. I think the real difference comes from wearing my contacts rather than simply taking off my glasses to swim, which I most often do because it is easy and, when I am not masquerading as a crazy driven triathlon-training maniac, I am really rather lazy.
I wonder if my poor eyesight wasn't a major contributing factor to the childhood trauma of swimming lessons. I didn't get contacts until well after I had dropped out of swimming lessons, so I must have gone through most of my lessons sans glasses--i.e., not able to see much of anything. No wonder I was afraid! Now, however, I am able to clearly see the pool floor three-and-a-half-to-four feet beneath me as I slowly splash my way down my lane. It is glorious.
Well, at least being able to see is fantastic. The swimming part? I'm still not entirely convinced.
Here's the report: I have gone swimming now four times. Last Tuesday, I swam just a few lengths; then maybe half an hour last Thursday. On Saturday I swam for a solid hour. That was the first day I really felt like I was getting somewhere. I went pretty slowly and took breaks after each length. However, I tried not to rest for more than ten or twenty seconds, and I did attempt one entire lap--down and back without stopping. I made it about two-thirds of the way through the second length before I honestly thought I might drown if I didn't stop. Maybe I was just being a pansy; but also, my feet hit the pool floor without me really intending them to, so I think I was quite literally dragging at that point.
I have a vague memory of this from swimming lessons of yesteryear: My tendency is to swim almost vertically in the water, especially deep water. Logically, the most efficient way to swim is horizontally, but somehow that idea never quite made its way from my brain to my legs. On Saturday I was mostly horizontal but I know that my feet were still significantly below the water's surface.
Yesterday I got some great advice from my friend Laura, who was my inspiration for this whole triathlon thing in the first place. She said if I'm moving forward and I can feel my feet at the water's surface, then my body is parallel, on the top of the water where it should be. I tried to focus on that last night when I went swimming, and immediately I was going so much faster! It was kind of fun--for maybe three or four lengths, by which point I was absolutely pooped. I slowed down considerably for the remainder of the swim.
I think I was focusing so much on my legs that I forgot about the other aspects of swimming. At one point I noticed that my arms hadn't moved in what seemed to be a very long time. There is so much to think about at once! Kick, reach, breathe, don't look up, turn to both sides to breathe, reach, try to go forward in a straight line, breathe, kick, keep your feet up, reach, breathe... That will take time to get used to. Also, an AquaFit class took over the pool and an older gentleman with a mustache channelling Charlie Chaplain (coughHitlercough) wanted to share my lane, the one lane they leave for lap swimming during the class. Apparently pool etiquette in Mustache Man's world means starting a leisurely swim down the very center of a shared lane. Sharing a lane is just one more thing to think about, and I actually ran into the side of the pool, like with my head. Well, so much for magic goggles.
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