Thoughts on my first Master's Swim practice

A Master's Swim Team has started up in Pocatello, and I went to my first practice with them yesterday.

Quick take-aways: 

1. Definitely going to do this at least til summer hits. We did all those things that I don't do on my own.

2. Nice and warm water is easy to get into in the morning.

3. I did some drills, which is something I really NEED to do.

4. I did some butterfly and breaststroke. I guess muscle-memory lasts over 20 years because that's how long it's been since I did those strokes.

5. I got in just a bit of high-intensity work early in the morning, which is really hard for me to do normally.

6. I can justify the cost because it provides additional flexibility in time by giving access to a pool at 5am on the weekdays, and a 6am swim workout on Saturday.  The ISU pool doesn't open til 6am on weekdays, and I can't swim til noon or 1 on weekends.

The Long Story For Those With Too Much Time on Your Hands

I've been swimming completely solo for the last 25 years (I swam on a club swim team from sixth or seventh grade to eleventh grade). My solo workouts consisted of basically simply do sets of freestyle varying from 25 or 50 yards to 2,000 yards . I've kept the intensity level down a bit for the most part, although at one point a couple of years ago I was regularly doing some really hard 15-20 x 100 yard sets. Outside of that, it was get in, swim at a decent but not hard pace for about 1,500 - 2,000 yards and then get out. Simple.

Yesterday was simple, too....it simply much more difficult!

Alarm goes of at 4:25am, and it takes me a few minutes to realize that it's the alarm. I've had a 50% success rate of getting up for a workout in the past 2-3 months. I thought about not going, then the voice in my head said "Just go. You'll be glad you did. How hard could it be?" Out of bed at 4:35.

Getting up and going is ALWAYS the hardest part of early morning workouts.

I had pre-staged some of the Starbucks micro-brew coffee single packs next to the baby formula. That's a lifesaver idea, by the way!  Thirty seconds later I have a full-on awesome 20oz coffee to get me started. I put on the clothes I prestaged the night before because I know that is a stopping point for me if I can't get up and get out of the door right away in the morning.

Fire up the car to warm it up a bit. It was about 15-20 degrees outside, so I wanted as much heat as possible going when I got in the car. Less than five minutes of warm-up in 15-20 degrees doesn't get much heat going, by the way.

To the pool. Streets empty but not deserted. Parking lot is dark. Hmmm....I'm on time so far. One guy hanging out by the door. A couple folks running around; I guess they ran to the gym and don't want to stand around and   freeze to death. By now, I 'm getting comfy in the warmth of the car and waking up as I finish my coffee.

Into the pool and quick change. Four other people! OK, I'm "one of the few" here, too.

Now, the biggest problem I always had with swimming at zero-dark-thirty in the winters of North Dakota back in the day was getting into the water. It's cold as heck out, and then you have to jump  in cold water in the morning.

That problem was not present. I sighed some relief as I slid into the nearly-90-degree water. No shock whatsoever. You know that any water that doesn't cause a chill-shock at 4:55am is pretty warm. But I consider it "just right" because it solves my biggest gripe about early morning swims.

The workout itself went great. I finished 2,150 yards if I remember right. That's the longest swim I've done in  eight months. Intensity level was much higher than I've done in the past year, even at that early hour (I generally can't get a high intensity level before 1100). Again, the water was nice and warm (only felt way too hot a couple of times, although it definitely was way too hot).

Then we did a few 100's. This was the high intensity part. It felt pretty good, though!

Then we did some drills for each stroke. Wow! I haven't done a drill in many, many years. And you know what? The catch-up drill is probably the solution to my snaking issue and just might be the way I learn to breathe on my right side! So things are looking better already.

Out of the pool at 0558. When I got home, of course Noah was already awake. That's the only bad thing about the timing of this workout. Tera is probably going to have to get up with Noah because he often gets up at around 5:30am and doesn't go back to sleep. Incidentally, that's how I'm writing this post this morning...Noah is up at 5:10am while I was supposed to be on the bike trainer.

I met the other swimmers very briefly on my way out of the pool. Nice people of course, but they must be a bit weird because they get up and go swimming at 5am on a cold winter morning.