Lesson 4

I arrived 1/2 hour early for my lesson so that I could practice only to find that there was a senior citizen water aerobics class taking up about 3/4 of the pool. There was a small sliver of unoccupied space at the deep end so I jumped in and started to practice my freestyle and my back stroke. As I was swimming back and forth "Mrs. Kravitz" was bobbing on a floating noodle while doing her arm circles and drifting into my small and limited area. I was able to swim around her but while doing the backstroke I was not able to see her and came close to hitting her with my arm. I gave my apologies but she seemed rather offended that she would have to share the pool. I wasn't really planning on getting into a Jet vs. Shark turf war with a senior citizen, but "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way.....". I kept swimming and ignored her.  I thought if I could go really fast past her maybe I could knock “Gladys” off her noodle with the strength of my wake. I wanted to be respectful but… she started it! I must have frightened her with my unruly backstroke and arms whipping about because she moved to safer waters after giving me the evil eye.  Only I could make swimming a contact sport and set off a gang war between the swimmers and the senior citizen aerobic-sizers.  Oy- vey.   

Maybe I was tired or maybe my impending rumble with “Gladys” had me distracted, but it was a struggle to stay focused and concentrate on swimming.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  It could have been the several glasses of champagne and the 5 lb pumpkin spice cake my husband and I enjoyed the night before for his birthday that left me in a fog and feeling low energy.  I couldn’t wait for the lesson to be over and to get out of the pool.

I am still not able to get the rhythm of the strokes right and get winded very easily because as my instructor Patty pointed out to me; I am not breathing correctly and it is very frustrating for both her and me.  I only have a few more lessons left.  I am worried that I am not progressing enough which is causing some stress.  I would like to be able to swim a full lap without stopping.  I have got a long way to go. 

On a side note:  Patty coaches a 5 and 6 year old swimming relay team. (I bet they can do the pull, breath, kick combo with no problem, but I can stay up  as late as I want on school nights so I win!)  She thought it would be cute to get the girls vintage swimming caps like mine.  She asked where I got it and I gave her the name of the company. It appears that my swim cap is a hit with both the old and young. So even if I didn’t have a spectacular lesson at least I helped the children be stylish.  It is after all always about helping the children. 

Next week:  Snorkeling!