Stopping

This was the most beautiful weekend in DC!! I made sure that I got outside for a run near the monuments with Adrienne. It was the perfect day to run minus the exception that I did not intake enough food prior and I had just swam for 1 hour, so my body was TIRED. We still covered the distance and went 3 miles, as planned, but we had to walk more than run back to the starting point. I was simply exhausted! Adrienne has skied for 4 hours that morning, so I don't think that she minded us walking back. She was the perfect running mate and didn't make me feel like I screwed up her run or gave me a hard time about stopping our run short. At least our walk back was a power walk.

Now stopping while swimming?? That's a different story altogether. On Saturday, I got to the pool to practice for 30 minutes before my private lesson, since it had been a few days since I was in the pool. My instructor took me  10 minutes early, so I ended up with 40 minutes of instruction, which was great. She is patient and takes the time to explain why she is telling me to do things. I have some techniques to practice this week and I left feeling pretty positive. Today was the group lesson at American University. There has apparently been some sort of shake up and we didn't have our usual coach today. This coach helps to run the Masters Program and is kinda hard core. We worked on drills and at the end we did some pace swimming. The first lap was good, because it was slow at our comfortable pace. I took my time, relaxed and breathed and made it across the pool without stopping ( I was so proud!!!). However, the pressure to get back and the rest of the increased timed drills didn't go so well. When I was forced to go fast my breathing got all screwed up and I had to keep stopping to breathe and get it together.

After the last timed drill, the instructor told me, "YOU CAN'T KEEP STOPPING. One day you will be in a river and you won't be able to feel the bottom , so you won't be able to stop". Now, those that know me and know how HARD and MUCH I have been practicing, can correctly guess that the following interchange was less than positive... My response? " I don't WANT to keep stopping, but when I'm forced to go fast, I get all twisted up with my breathing and so I have to stop to get it together". Her reply: Well, you have to practice at the pool bobbing your head up and down out  of the water and practice breathing". That's when I lost it... I told her, "I practice. I am at the pool FIVE DAYS a week. I just started learning to swim 1 month ago. I'm sure all of these people didn't learn how to breathe and freestyle with perfect form in 1 month. I'm working on it, but if I don't have my breathing down just yet, swimming for time is not where I am, but I do practice!!!". I was a little more than perturbed. That's why I joined a beginners group, but these folks are not beginners. I did learn that some of these folks have taken this same class before. Let's just say, that I won't be taking her class again.