After moving to Arlington, I figured it was time to start swimming with a masters team. Off the recommendation of Ed, Keith and I joined Minuteman which was the best swimming decision of our life. Seriously…any in the Boston area should swim with them. I mean where else can you swim long course, listen to nice upbeat music, meet some awesome people AND be coached by some fantastic, enthusiastic coaches?
The first Minuteman practice didn’t exactly go as planned. We got in the ‘triathlete lane’ which quickly became the ‘I’m way slower than you guys so I’m moving to lane 6-lane’. When told to do an IM set, Keith and I kind of looked at each other like ‘what’? I mean you tell a triathlete to do IM and they’re going to think you want them to swim 2.4 miles. After finding out IM actually means to do all four strokes (wait there’s four strokes in swimming? I thought there was only 1…well maybe 2…does doggie paddle count?). I’m pretty sure it must’ve been comical to watch us try to figure out three strokes we’d never seen and I’ve almost positive I messed up IM order for the first 2 or 3 weeks.
Alas, I’ve finally figured out IM order (least favorite stroke to favorite stroke) but I don’t dread it any less. My fly looks like I’m about to drown, my backstroke is slow and sometimes bothers my shoulder, and my breaststroke feels like I’m not moving. The best part of IM though is the fact that it’s made me appreciate freestyle so much more!
While I’m still no great swimmer, I feel like my stoke has improved a lot and best of all: I feel so much more comfortable in the water and I actually started to not mind going swimming (which is big for me). Before we moved, I’d finally moved up a lane - hooray! While I love living in VT, Minuteman is one of those things (like BTT) which I truly miss. My new masters team swims in a short course pool, people tend to jump out of the pool super early (I’m pretty sure they only swim for like 15 mins), and our ‘coach’ puts a workout on the board and then goes on her laptop. Even the intervals are ‘chose your own adventure’ with times like, 1min, 1min 10, 1min 20, 1min 30, or 15 sec rest. That is NOT going to help me get faster.
At Minuteman, I’d actually thank the coaches for kicking my butt since I definitely need it (spacing out and losing focus has been known to happen with me). They truly are a top notch group that I’m glad to have been a part of and wish would just move to VT…Minuteman North anyone? Needless to say my new masters really makes me appreciate Minuteman. Thanks guys and I’ll try to make you proud in the Ironman (or at least not drown).
Some swimming pics from last season:
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