I Did It!!

I went to my first “official” Masters practice today.  I say “official” because I’ve gone before but the head coach was always traveling with the age-groupers.   I had to deal with his assistant, previously,  who I swear is 1/2 my age.  Hard to listen to a kid who is 1/2 my age and comes across like a total punk.  And, he has the same name as my younger son.  It just wasn’t working for me.  Then the kids were out of school for the summer and time got away from me… Which, by the way, THANK GOD they go back to school tomorrow.  Sorry, I digressed for a moment. 

Anyway, the Tween (my oldest son) and the Trooper (my younger son) both came along to watch me swim, which I actually really loved.  [I am not going to use their real names on this blog to prevent them from any further online embarrassment than I have already bestowed upon them].  After getting them settled in the bleachers I introduced myself to the coach. 

Coach explained to me how the workouts are run and which speeds swim in which lanes.  He said to hop into whichever lane I felt most comfortable in (as if any of them would be “comfortable”!).  Since it has been, oh, 18 years I said “I am going in the slow lane!” and hopped in.  Apparently I only swam half a lap before he told my lane buddies “Um, she is not slow!”.  When I touched the wall at my first 50m I got promoted to the fast lane, but I objected and we agreed on the medium lane.  First lesson learned:  I am not 16 anymore and what I say, matters.  Not a concept I was used to.

I swam and enjoyed the two people I shared a lane with.  One older gentleman (70+ years old?) and a “younger” gal (about my age!) who was in awesome shape wearing a 2-piece Speedo training suit, who I was immediately jealous of.  We did our workout, based upon what Coach wrote up on the white board.  Tween and Trooper sat patiently in the bleachers, shocked I think, that mom could really swim laps.  The look on their faces was quite priceless, actually.  At one point the two got up, hand in hand, and started walking around the deck and I thought “Oh great.  They’re bored already.”.  But, they were just heading to the bathroom.  No biggie.  So I kept swimming.

After awhile I needed to get back to work, so I told Coach I was calling it a day (another luxury of being an adult ~ Who knew there were so many benefits?).  He asked me how I felt about my swim and I said “Really, really slow”.  He gave me a great piece of advice.  At least, *I* think it is great advice.  He told me to concentrate on getting slow slowly, instead of getting fast faster.  To my little pea-sized brain, that made a whole ton of sense.  Especially since I’m quite impatient and tend to set unrealistic goals for myself.  Both of which lead to their cousins “frustration” and “disappointment”.

I’ll be back on Friday.  And guess what?  For the first time in several weeks, my headache is gone.  Coincidence?