So today was our first coached workout -- swim and bike. I thought I was mentally prepared for this dreadful day -- the FIRST day of swim practice with the team -- but, as you'll soon read, some of the forces were against me...
We met at Dougherty Vally High School in San Ramon at 7:45am. I got there about 7:30am, with all the necessary gear for both swim and bike training: swim suit on (under my clothes), goggles, swim cap -- I left the kick board at home, I didn't want it to be too obvious that I didn't know how to swim (although the fear in my eyes once we reached the pool probably gave it all away!) I also had my new Trek bike, which I just bought on Friday and barely knew how to operate the brakes and gears, but I had a helmet, so I was prepared for the worst, and I had my bike shorts (with necessary and helpful padding all in the right areas!)
The first part of the day was a nutrition clinic -- the coaches talked about proper nutrition ("fat burns in a carbohydrate fire" = EAT LOTS OF CARBS -- yes, bring on the bread and pasta! Yumm!) After the clinic, we walked over to the pool -- my heart started to beat faster as we approached the pool area. When it was time to enter the pool, we were asked to divide ourselves by skill level, the beginners (that's me!) were told to use lane on the far left, in the 3 foot deep water, where they knew we could do no harm to ourselves (or others for that matter). So I walked over to the "beginner" lane, and I was pleased to see that I wasn't the only one that considered themselves beginners -- there were actually three of us and we all had the same "look" on our face -- the "oh @#$%" look. We were given three drills to do in the water and for about 20 mins, we were trying to do the drills, but each of us could only get a quarter of the way down the lane -- our beginner skills/frantic splashing in the water was a clear cry for help. So our swim coach finally came over and worked with us (which was great timing considering that I was starting to feel the need to pee after drinking so much of the pool water!) -- she started with the basics: how to blow bubbles in the water...and by the time swim practice was over, I am happy to say, that even though we didn't get to do what everyone else was doing, we were still experts in our own mind...experts at blowing bubbles in the water!
After we got out of the pool, we had 15 mins to get into our bike gear. Again, they divided us by skill level -- and again, I placed myself in the "beginner" group -- where the goal by the end of practice was to be able to ride your bike and grab your water bottle without crashing into anything. For the next hour, we rode around the empty parking lot learning how to use our brakes and gears -- we were "getting to know" our bikes. And by the end of practice, we were all experts at riding and grabbing our water bottle!
So that was the 1st day of practice --it was long, grueling, and at some times intimidating, but I got through it...and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am looking forward to the next swim practice -- to show off my underwater bubble blowing skills! =)
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2 comments:
I'm so proud of you Danette! I am not very good at grabbing the water bottle out of the water bottle holder and riding at the same time either. I wear a hydration pack for my water. On my bike, I use one of the water bottle holders for my electrolyte drink and the other holder I have a bottle with filled with nuts, stuffed peanut butter pretzels and M&Ms. In my bento box I have my bars and gels. (I'm not flexible enough to ride and reach into back jersey pockets at the same time without pulling a muscle.)
If you want to go blow bubbles in the pool together one evening or weekend, let me know. I'll get you a guest pass to my gym.
Wow! good for you for jumping in there and going for it! what an incredable journey this will be for you! Honestly, I feel about running what you feel about swimming - while others seems to glide along effortlessly I'm struggling after a minute - we're all going to learn alot in the next few months!
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