#postaday (well, sorta).
When I get home from work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I immediately put on my swim suit, tell my girls to fend for themselves for dinner, and take a nap. Then I go to The Oahu Club for my masters swim session with coaches Joe (Tuesday) and Tom (Thursday) Lileikis. They are two of the best coaches we could have. I haven’t worked with the other coaches because they mostly deal with young age-group swimmers, but I know they have golden reputations. We are fortunate to have them.
I get in my swim suit right away because if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t go swimming, especially in the winter when Hawaii is kind of chilly. The wind is a brisk, the air cools quickly, and wino’clock tempts me. I gotta go. I’m training for a little triathlon in April. I need to be able to swim well and at a decent pace to keep from coming in last. I could come in last. But there are those of us who console ourselves with the idea that we should “complete instead of compete.” If you know me, that’s kinda difficult. I’m so competitive.
Last night I got out to the van and went back into the house for a little wetsuit shirt to wear in the pool. By the time I was on my third lap, I wished I had left it home. But I swam the whole time in it. The drag was just more force to work with. There were only three or four of us, we each had our own lane, and Joe set us up with a mid-distance and drills session for 2500 meters. The drills helped us perfect our stroke and breathing patterns. For the last four hundred, we were to do a 25 out of each hundred as fast as we could. I made that 25 my second one in each 100. I worked on keeping my head positioned correctly, my stroke long, and I alternated sides to breathe. Joe also had us push a water polo ball across the pool as part of our drills. I felt like a dolphin pushing the ball in as straight a line as I could.
I noticed while I was swimming the crescent moon above me, with Venus and Jupiter suspended below. It was pretty to watch the sky turn golden orange on the horizon and dark blue straight above me as I turned my head to breathe and wave to the heavenly bodies. By the time we were through, it was completely dark, the pools were still, and Mr. and Mrs. Duck were no longer dogged by Miss Big Fat Goose.
An hour goes by quickly in the pool. I’ve often felt like not going, but I’ve never regretted having gone.
Lavagal 