Stealth Like a Seal

Tonight started with cold, stormy waters for me. I'm pretty sure they drained the pool and refilled it with ice that just melted in time for our swim practice. Brrr! I had a tough time getting in and I procrastinated with all my might (and for those of you who don't know me well, I'm a master procrastinator). Several of us delayed our entry to the pool...at first on chairs poolside, then on the edge of the pool. Apparently, we caused quite the spectacle as we were offered margaritas by another coach who observed our social time.

This came to an abrupt end when our coach arrived--ready for business. St. Maria, directed us to hop in and start out swimming five 50 yard swims with decreasing amounts of rest in between. We started with about 30 seconds of rest in between each 50 and got down to about 5 seconds in between. This was quite the rude awakening for me. I was flailing all over the place, breathing in water like I had gills, and drinking water like a drought was imminent. My heart was pounding so strongly that my heartbeat was creating waves. Right around the time that we were doing this drill, I noticed that the lifeguard was circling the pool while carrying a life preserver. Was I making him worried?

Miraculously, I survived, regained a normal heartbeat, and caught my breath. We progressed with some more swimming and drills of 50 to 100 yards sets. Then, we switched to integrating a the breast stroke as a rest stroke for one length every once in a while. I still can't get the breast stroke to work for me. This means I have no rest/recovery stroke that I'm comfortable with. However, I've always been interested in sidestroke although I learned that it's not a competitive stroke...until tonight!

St. Maria told us that on Tuesday she was chatting with a Navy Seal swim instructor. Guess what stroke the Navy Seals swim??? The sidestroke! They swim the sidestroke because it's stealth. According to the Navy Seal's Fitness Test Website you must swim 500 yards doing the Combat Swimmer Stroke, sidestroke, or breast stroke in 12 minutes 30 seconds (although 8-9 minutes is needed to be competitive). I wonder if the Seals send a recruit to triathlons??? There's still hope for me.

It's about time for me to wind down for the evening. I need to rest up to perfect my stealthiness. I'm sure stealth is the first thing that comes to mind when people watch me swim.

Please consider making a donation to our fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Visit our Team Courcelle fundraising page.