Drills in the Slow Lane is How I like It!

The best lane in the Monte pool!

Wednesday nights are spent training in the Monte Sant'Angelo 25 metre pool for us North Podders.  I have to say I love this pool, as it's not only 25 metres (the kind of pool I'm most comfortable with), but most importantly, it's heated!  It's a balmy 28 degrees most nights, and every time I get in I ask "why can't the ocean be as warm as this??"  Ah, wishful thinking on my part, of course.

Lane 6 is my lane with my happy band of "slowies", and Coach Dee is really the best.  When I told her about my panic attack in the surf the other Saturday, she told me that around three years ago she was exactly the same - and look at her now!  She said something that really struck me - that it's actually really good that the panic attack happened to me fairly early in the training, because that taught me a valuable lesson: how freaking out in the water actually feels, and what I need to do to control the fear.  I'm not so sure about the control bit, but it's heartening to know that I'm not the only person who's ever been scared of the ocean, and that it is something that can be surmounted.  Hopefully, one day!

Anyway, I do enjoy Wednesday training mainly because of the drills.  My favourite is the fist drill, where you do an overarm/freestyle swim stroke but with your hands clenched into fists.  You can really feel the difference between swimming with fists versus swimming with palms open! 

Then there's the breathing drill, where you breathe every 2, 4 and 6 strokes if you only breathe from one side, and every 3, 5 and 7 strokes if you can bi-lateral breathe.  I default to breathing on my right side, but try really hard to learn to breathe both sides, as it's useful to be able to see out of both sides when in the ocean.  This was a seriously hard drill, but great for someone like me who stresses about running out of breath while swimming.  Yes, I know, I stress about a lot of things.  :)

And speaking of bilateral breathing, a seriously hard one we did today was swimming sideways every third stroke for around five flutter kicks.  This is supposed to help us be better at breathing out of both sides.  It sounds pretty easy, and when I'm doing it on my right side it's a piece of cake, but I always, always sink when I try it on my left side!  Grrrr...terribly frustrating, but it's just one of those things that one gets better at with practice, and with lots of swallowed chlorinated water along the way.

But the absolute best bit of Wednesday training is that it becomes a bit of a "date night" for me and Adrian, as training finishes around 8:00 p.m. and it's a bit too late to go home and cook dinner.  It was a great chance to eat at an old local favourite Lebanese restaurant (Safi) last night, and walk home hand-in-hand.  Awwwww...