I am the Egg Man, I am the Otter

Week 35: October 27 - November 2

Run: 0 km
Bike: 16 km
Swim: 3500 m Ski: 25 km

While attempting to recover from the Fall of pain and illness, I have spent more time in the pool than anywhere else. Most of this time has been spent with the newly formed Whitehorse Master's Swim Club, which has been an experiment in humiliation. To put it bluntly, swimming is not my strong suit. In fact, swim club is pretty much a full hour of horrible pain while I desperately try to keep up with a lane full of fish.

I don't quite understand why swimming is such an exercise in futility. In fact, I feel like it's downright unfair that I move so slowly through the water. In the game of "Which Animal are You?", I have long considered myself a Sea Otter. While the connection might not be obvious, just think your last zoo or aquarium visit where otters were concerned - "Mommy - look at that otter, isn't it adorable? It looks like it is purposely playing right in front of the glass so that everyone will look at it and ignore the much cuter baby beluga next door. Mommy - is it true that otters have a subcutaneous level of fat that helps them maintain a constant level of activity over extended periods of time?". Given my obvious resemblance to the otter, you would think that I could glide through the water with speed and ease. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I love the water - there is nowhere I'd rather be than sitting in the lake at Lac La Biche. Apparently I just don't love moving through water.

Swim Club happens three times a week at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am. This is not quite as ungodly as the freaks who take the 6:00 am Swim Club, but it is still painfully early. We are supposed to start class with a "Warm-Up", which feels less like a warm-up and more like the first foray into pain. I usually only make it halfway through before the rest of class is finished and ready to move onto part II. I'm not sure what the technical term for the second phase of class is, but I like to think of it as the "Exploding Head and Lungs Journey into Hell". This is where we swim certain lengths in certain periods of time. Most people get a rest after each couple lengths, I can barely make the time-lines given and seem to swim most of the lengths in succession. After this portion, we practice other strokes. I don't know how to do any of these other strokes, so I just flop around in the water like a drowning rat and hope nobody notices. The best part about all this is that I get to do the entire thing in a bathing suit.

Sierra posted this on Nov 09, 2008 from the gym | | permanent link