Adult swimming lesson - Part 2

This is a continuation of this post, from earlier this week:

So, walking into my second lesson, I was feeling more confident. I didn't arrive ridiculously early this time, only about 5 minutes. When I got there, I chatted a bit with some of my classmates and concluded that I need to get myself some goggles. Sure, they look a little silly, but I always close my eyes when my head goes under water, and I think it would be easier for me if I kept them open.

11:00 came around and we headed over to our end of the pool for the start of class. David handed out forms for us all to fill out so that he could understand our goals a bit better. It asked about our background swimming, our fear of water, our goals and other things. I wrote down that my goals for the class were to become confident enough to be able to swim laps with a long term goal of doing a triathlon.

I am still a little hesitant to talk about my triathlon goals in real life. It's easy here on my blog, but when I'm face to face with somebody, it's different. I feel like they'll be looking at me and seeing a woman that is still pretty overweight, and therefore not very athletic. Therefore, owning up to it, even on paper, was a big step for me.

This class David was prepared. He had drills ready for the different levels. For us beginners, he put us in floatation devices. (He explained to us the difference between life jackets and floatation devices.) I was a bit surprised, but I figured out his reasons pretty quickly. Both Julie and I have admitted to being afraid of the water. What David doesn't realize is, I'm totally comfortable in the water where I can touch bottom. Unlike the pool in my town, the entire lap pool is shallow enough to touch bottom in.

We did some more beginner activities. I learned that there was actually a reason they were having the kids blow bubbles in the preschool class I did with my munchkins. Here, I thought it was just for fun.

When he told us to push off the wall and kick, I decided to really kick. I got some good distance very quickly. Not long after that, I dumped the life jacket (oops, should say floatation device) and started swimming laps. Nothing too fancy. Kicking with a flutter board on my front, as well as my back. I did a little bit of a back crawl with my arms involved at the very end of the class.

I'm not a huge fan of keeping my face in the water, so I prefer the swimming strokes where I'm on my back. Having said that, I'm going to have to get used to it. The front crawl is generally considered the stroke to use for triathlons. I'm sure I'll learn why eventually, but for now, I'll start with getting comfortable with it, and eventually proficient.

My knee is still messed up on me. After doing some googling, I've self diagnosised it as bursitis, something I've dealt with before in my hip. The good news is, with some rest, it should get better. The bad news is, that means I have to rest it.

Having said that, I'm hoping it will feel good to go for my swimming lesson tomorrow. If it is, desperation to do activity may override my fear of the deep end at the local pool. I'm thinking I may be doing some laps there next week...