My goal last year was to attend a masters swim class in 2008 and I actually had planned to start in January. But after a death in my family early this year I was not very motivated to work out and I pushed that masters swim class back and back. Plus I truly felt intimidated to go.
I kept talking about it but just wouldn’t go and would instead swim junk miles at my gym, well .5 miles to just under 1 mile at a time.
So last night I spoke about it again and Amy really pushed me to go, and this morning at 5:30 with more encouragement from Amy I finally went. The group swims at McCallie High in Chattanooga are at a very impressive facility and sadly enough that is barely a mile from my house.
Now to the swim:
We started at 6am and I swam on the left side with the weaker group. After a warm up, 10 sets of 50s and 12 sets of 25s we did 18 sets of 100s split up in sets of 5 at different speeds. But after a while I had to swim 75s as I could no longer keep up due to my cuurent bad endurance. The whole workout though was really good and tiring and everybody was very friendly and nice. Now I am eager to go back on Friday (they swim Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and then next week Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
I am glad I went and I am glad Amy “pushed” me to go.
That’s what it’s all about Herbert! I’m sure all the folks were glad to see you there, and I bet you’ll be swimming alongside Jimmy Welbourn in no time! I’m glad you’ve got Amy to help motivate you. Now all you’ve got to do is have her hold you accountable on those mornings when all you want is some Greyfriar’s and the newspaper. Keep up the good work and tell Stan and everyone I said hello.
I was very nervous before my first Masters swim because I had never swam with a group before, I was completely self-taught on my technique, and was pretty sure I was going to make a fool of myself.
Luckily, I did an OK job of teaching myself technique and I wasn’t TOO bad. Plus, everyone in my group was very cool and laid back. Within a few weeks I had moved up a couple lanes and the end result was my best swimming of my tri “career” last year after joining a masters group.
Unfortunately I work during a lot of their sessions, so I don’t swim with them anymore, but once I get my schedule to settle down I’ll go back for sure.
Great job! When I went yesterday, the lights were off since the coach forgot to set his alarm.
It really bummed my entire day.
This morning was great though. There is a group of folks that all are about the same ability.
So, we did some 400’s first. 300 warm up, 10 second rest, then a full out 100. It is so much
fun since there were 3 of us swimming to push each other!!! No way I could ever get motivated
to work that hard by myself. And it is clear the others also. One guy asked if I was going to stay the
entire practice since I push him hard which he loves. Told him I had to ride my PC bike to work, so cut the
class 15 minutes short.
Was thinking as I was riding my PC commute bike to work that if I were to coach folks, swimming 5 days
a week would be my first input. It does such great things for the body, with no pounding!! I know it
totally turned my race results around.
A mile from your house. NO EXCUSE!! Mine is 25 miles away.
Go for a while and you will make yourself a whole new set of friends who have the same goals as you do.
