Hitting the pool

I can hear my heart thumping as I was walking in to the pool. In a way, I sort of understood the reasons for nervousness, which were kind of silly on all counts.

One was that I havent really had be in a class with other people in swim suits, the last time that happened was when I was like 6?! (But then you would have been in swim suit when you go swimming right? Er..yeah..but then I dont have to be in such close proximity mah. Not logical I know..but then fears are not logical most of the time).

Second was that I was totally inadequate in freestyle, again the last time I swam that was when I was 6, since I always found breaststroke more comforting, in that the head would get to go above water now and then (this fear is pretty logical..people will get to see you struggling; also imagine the lack of air and gulping swimming pool water,with donno some thousands of micro organism, is quite bad when you are 30 years old, not when you are 6 and probably think the water in the pool taste somewhat like the one from the tap at home. :/)

Anyway, all these in the name of trying out new stuffs for the new year (with more to come..it's going to be an interesting year!) So, on new year's day itself I had signed up for Safra Biathlon, which I had always told myself I would try it out since uni days (but then it had always been hockey, followed by work..). In the end, I guess it's always easy to find excuses cos that will mean I dont have to move out of my comfort zone. So I pushed myself a little in this case.

And that meant having cold feet prior to the first session of the swim training package that I signed up for (I realise that I may need professional help, and also that means I dont have to do the swim time trial, which I would never be able to make the cutoff timing). But I had already paid for it and if I dont go through this, that means the registration fee for the race will be happily donated to the army people for free (sometimes I wonder why I pay for such stuff and torture myself..okok, all in the name of challenging myself and putting myself on a regime so that I wont not start growing mould)

So..it was reporting to the 2 instructors from Tribob, changing, and hitting the pool. And yes,

(i) I struggled with the freestyle. So I was grouped together with another 5 who were also slightly weaker, and started our drills.

(ii) I was out of breath most of the time. Breathing is so much more difficult when you cannot get the rhythm and I can feel that I probably look blue in the face most of the time . The drills were broken down into 25m each leg, leisure swim to the other side, then 25m back, leisure swim again. Leisure swim was always the chance for me to pull my life back (in breast stroke of course), which always seems to be just a thin line away by the time I reach the designated 25m mark

(iii) I gulped water. Period. I dont want to think about it already :s

The instructor say, there is hope yet. I just it is enough for me to hit the beach on 7 March.