My First Lane Share
I finally hit the pool yesterday. We usually go in the morning or in the evening, but yesterday we made the mistake of getting to the Y right at 5 p.m. Bad mistake. Bad.
This put us there just in time for all the after-work exercisers to get there, and all the after-school kids, and all the private swimming lessons, and all the parents sitting in chairs right outside the pool, staring at us through the windows. First there was four lanes, then there was three lanes, then two of them got taken by kids classes, then the open swim area was taken by water aerobics. Which left me, TH, and a complete stranger to share one lane.
I know there is pool etiquette for this, but I've been lucky enough to never have to do this before. Me and TH got banished to the other guy's lane, so I felt a bit like we were taking it away from him. I apologized and he was cool. Having to share sped me up A LOT more. No time to hang out at the edge and catch my breath - someone's coming! And this other guy had a great deal more stamina than I did.
I did get a chance to try out my new stuff. Worked great, especially the goggles. It's like a whole new world down there. The best part was after T and the other guy got out, leaving me the lane to myself. I had a chance to put my head down and swim from one end to the other underwater, like a big mermaid, butterfly stroke, dolphin-style, anything I felt like. I stayed under as long as I could, then swam lap after lap trying to get the breathing rhythm down for the freestyle. I'm still working on it. But it was SO much fun.
This put us there just in time for all the after-work exercisers to get there, and all the after-school kids, and all the private swimming lessons, and all the parents sitting in chairs right outside the pool, staring at us through the windows. First there was four lanes, then there was three lanes, then two of them got taken by kids classes, then the open swim area was taken by water aerobics. Which left me, TH, and a complete stranger to share one lane.
I know there is pool etiquette for this, but I've been lucky enough to never have to do this before. Me and TH got banished to the other guy's lane, so I felt a bit like we were taking it away from him. I apologized and he was cool. Having to share sped me up A LOT more. No time to hang out at the edge and catch my breath - someone's coming! And this other guy had a great deal more stamina than I did.
I did get a chance to try out my new stuff. Worked great, especially the goggles. It's like a whole new world down there. The best part was after T and the other guy got out, leaving me the lane to myself. I had a chance to put my head down and swim from one end to the other underwater, like a big mermaid, butterfly stroke, dolphin-style, anything I felt like. I stayed under as long as I could, then swam lap after lap trying to get the breathing rhythm down for the freestyle. I'm still working on it. But it was SO much fun.