The Masters Swimming Thread!

[Kimmyt]

Regale us with your tales of derring-do from Masters classes (or, heck, just tell us about your latest lap session!)!

Had my first Masters class yesterday. Last year was my first season, and I entered into the class 1/2 way through so I missed the warm-fuzzy start and just got tossed into the deep end. Hah.

Yesterday it was odd because there was some new people and it felt weird to be considered the experienced one, even though there are alot of people that are faster than me, I guess now I'm officially the fastest in the slow lane?

Except for this one guy who was in class for the first time, and he was really good. He had me struggling to keep up when we were doing our 75 intervals. It was nice to be pushed. Last season I found a guy who swam just a tad faster than me, and he was my favorite lane partner. This guy will probably move up lanes pretty quickly, but I was feeling okay. And The Boy survived and did pretty dang well, despite his nerves about drowning!

My foot did start to hurt again during the kick. Does anyone have any experience with wrapping a foot during a swim workout? It never hurts any other time, even in running, but when I kick it just aggravates the heck out of the tendons in the floppy part of the ankle, and normally I love kicking and am a very strong kicker so this is upsetting.

Oh, and this was fun, The Boy and I decided it was useless to fire up the car for the 1 mile drive over to class, and just as useless to get on the bike (especially considering it would be dark on the ride home). So we implemented our new form of commuting, and ran over there and then ran home, which was actually quite a nice bookend for the workout!

Yay swim season!

K.

[light_sabe_r]

Great thread Kimmyt!

I did my third class yesterday... OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I SIGNED UP FOR!!! I'm aching all over this morning!



I've never learnt how to swim breast stroke. Or should I say people have tried to teach me but I've failed misserably! So we were doing medleys yesterday and while I kept pace with everyone on butterfly and backstroke, I became a floundering piggy on the breaststroke... No power, no rythum, no co-ordination what's so ever. Dog paddle would have looked more dignified...

My coach is good though. And my class is small and I'm the "new girl" so they're all nice and understanding. ^_^

[Running Mommy]

Went to masters lastnight. I got Tony in the water. He's suppose to be doing IMAZ next year, so he needs masters in a bad way. He LOVED it!!
Claudio the instructor is just the BEST! He is one of those people who just makes everyone around them feel better about themselves. He's a super fast triathlete- 10th at IMAZ last year- yet he doesn't look down his nose at anyone. He's just so dang excited about his sport, and so positive.
He's working with a girl named Jen who is pregnant with twin girls. She's due in Jan but looks like she could go anytime. She is so helpful with correcting your stroke.
Yeah I'm the slowest girl in the pool. My 100 time has come down three seconds in a week! At a whopping 2:22.. YEE HAW! But Claudio swears there is hope for me...
I will say though that the drills are hard, the sets are hard, the kicking sets stink, but it's also a bucket o fun! I have always been so inimidated by masters, but it really isn't THAT scary. I'm bummed that I didn't find claudio sooner. I could have had a killer swim last April dang it!

[crazycanuck]

I swim twice a week with a tri group & love it. Carol(coach) is a cool gal/woman/chick/kahuna..

I might be a bit slow but I try and push myself as much as I can. I try and draft off people if i can.

I'm known to be the strong kid when it comes to kickboard drills I hate pull buoys..

One thing that's made a diff is my new prescription goggles I can see

I bewieve we do about 1.5km total when we swim. I'd like to do an open water swim event this summer and am using the sessions to build confidence.

I'd like to do some open water swimming practice but the water's a bit cold at the moment..that and all the storms have washed ashore some lovely looking jellyfish that i'd rather not encounter at the moment..

C

[rocknrollgirl]

Yo,
I did about 2500 last night. A timed 500, some short sprint intervals and some 100 repeats.

The good news is that the DH started sswimming with me in the pool in May and he is doing great. Two weeks ago he was able to swim all of my intervals on the short distance sets. He is doing so well. It is fun to experience it with him.


We are both worried about the cold water in Tahoe in two weeks, but whatcha gonna do!

[HillSlugger]

I'm paranoid about going to masters, thinking I'm just not good enough yet. I felt this same way about going to open lap swims so I know it's something I just need to get past. Perhaps I can psych myself up for the winter session.

Since my swimming emphasis is on swimming for triathlon what is the value in practicing strokes other than freestyle?

BTW, should we ask TE for a separate swimming forum?