Laps are hard. Swimming is a lot of work. Experienced swimmers make it look so easy because they glide through the water quickly and with perfect form. When I swim it feels like I am thrashing around and trying twice as hard as them but not even going half the speed. Every time I turn my head out of the water to gasp for breath I am really loud. I get desperate for air while I am swimming. Finally I barely make it to the wall and pull myself up on the edge so I can catch my breath before pushing off and swimming back down the pool.
Yesterday the person in the lane next to me was clearly a good swimmer, or I am even worse than I thought. I would start down the pool before her, and by the time I got halfway, she was already coming back in the opposite direction. I felt bad because I had the “medium” speed lane, and she had the “slow” lane. Watching her form while I caught my breath was interesting.
When she was doing freestyle, her arms would come out of the water and then kind of shoot forward before going back in, as opposed to my gangly windmill strokes. Her mouth would barely come above the water and she alternated breathing on her right, then three strokes later she would breath on her left. I wish I knew how to do flip turns for two reasons. 1. they look really cool. 2. I would be able to swim down and back faster.
45 minutes was the longest I could swim laps. I took two water breaks in the middle, and by the time I was done my arms and legs were dead. Not to mention that I was completely out of breath. At the very start I could swim 25 meters in 25-30 seconds. But by the end of my workout I could barely muster 45 seconds. I found that at the end, swimming slowly and methodically felt much better. I gave myself more time to breath and stopped looking at the timer during my laps. At least I was swimming and not just sitting around.
Actually, the pool was pretty empty when I went at noon yesterday. When I got in the lap pool there was one guy in the hot tub, and one other person swimming laps. She stayed for a long time, and eventually two other people got in the lap pool. After I swam laps for 45 minutes I got in the hot tub, and the lap pool filled up. I left shortly after.
I like empty swimming pools. They are so peaceful. The still water and clean smell make everything so nice. Sitting in the hot tub by myself was great too. There was calm music playing over the radio and the jets were on half speed. I even could have read if I had had my book. Hopefully I will go swimming again today and I can compare the crowds. I wonder if the life guards get bored sitting there when there is only a couple of people in the pool. Maybe I made their job more interesting because they never knew if I was going to make it all the way across. Anyways, it was fun to swim and in the future I want to improve my form and endurance.
