Tonight I wandered over to Fairwater Leisure Centre to join Cardiff Triathletes for a swim session. Well, I say a swim session. I mostly just floundered around in the inside lane, annoying all the actual swimmers.
I don't remember ever being taught front crawl properly as a kid, so naturally I'm pretty crap at it. I don't know how to swim even semi-efficiently and, crucially, I can't fit my breathing into my poor excuse for a stroke.
So it's right back to basics. I spent much of the session not swimming at all, but simply exhaling underwater, turning my head to the right or left and inhaling. It turns out my breathing was way too shallow. You have to exhale with much more force than I had realised. So that was lesson number one. Then I did a few lengths holding a float with one arm and crawling with the other, then swapping sides. That was about it. And even that was a challenge.
I'm just not a swimmer. But I'm determined to get better. I'll be having at least one, and possibly two, lessons a week from now on. Forget inhibitions. I'm inevitably going to look 'special' for quite a while yet!
I have a year to get this sorted. Then I have to swim a mile in the London Docks, not forgetting the ensuing 40km bike ride and 10km run. What have I got myself into?!
Wow, swimming lessons. Its odd but if you think about it we would probably all need lessons. I guess in school you are basically taught how not to drown and to get from one side to the other.
ReplyDeleteMy chimney sweep hat off to you for starting again and powering thru the 'looking special'
So will you be swimming the channel or something similar with your new found skills????