Kids Play

This is the best way to describe the end of our group swim last night, but more on that in a bit. I wasn’t exactly sure how the swim was going to go last night. It’s so much easier to stay up on the deck and coach then gut it out with the rest of the team, but it was time to splash around with everyone else. After a warm-up and a stretch I was feeling pretty good and I’m sure the ibuprofen helped in regards to the shoulder. The main set was going to be about a ½ mile (800). To ease the congestion that happens with many people swimming at different speeds we used three lanes but only swimming in the outer two. So you would swim up one, duck under two lane lines and then back down in a big circle. It actually worked pretty well and it helps people learn how to pass and things like that. That said I think I tired myself more from crossing the middle lane then anything else.

After the ½ mile we did some drills to allow people to get the sense of open water swimming. First we did some drafting laps so people could feel the difference by following right behind a couple of people. Next, and a total blast, we had the ladies swim by twos and then the guys would follow behind and grab their legs a couple times as they swam. Of course the ladies didn’t now what was going to happen. Some freaked and some just came up laughing. It’s a good drill because you will get grabbed at some point in the open water. Don’t worry the ladies got they chance as the guys swam the ladies were about half way down and then would push down on our backs sending us to the pool floor as we swam by. The final drill was the mass start. We all huddled treading water is a small area and then we would have to sprint down the lane. Having experienced this before I did my best to thrash around and swim over as many people as possible as I went down the lane. Not to be mean of course, but to show them how some people actually swim during a race so that they don’t freak out if it happens.

This ended the workout but play time wasn’t over yet. Safety Bob had brought his underwater camera so took advantage as the 2nd group started their workout. We took a variety of shots and videos of us swimming over him or posing underwater. Hopefully he will send me the pics soon and I’ll get them up. Even better is if we can get the video linked up. So in the end it was an entertaining workout and a nice way to break back into the group swim. I get the day off today and I’ll head out for a DTM after work. Tomorrow morning starts off early again with bricks at 8:00 AM. Oh the joy.

Have a good one ladies and gents…

Quote of the Day: Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. - James Bryant Conant