swimming

I have a membership at the Manhattan Plaza Health Club and am happy that I do - because there's a pool!  Last night my training pal Maggie joined me for a solo swim workout laid out by the coaches.  Lesson number one - 6pm is crowded at the MPHC pool!  There are 4 lap lanes - one of them was taken up by a private lesson and the other 3 had 2 or more people already swimming.  I'll admit to not being able to figure out the speed labels for the lanes: Slow, Fast, Intermediate Slow, Intermediate Fast.  They aren't in that or any other obvious order so I can't quite decide if Intermediate Slow is faster than slow or vice versa.  Let's just say I usually pick the lane with the least people.  So we swam, dodging the super fast and carefully passing the super slow.  Over the course of 35 minutes in the water I'm pretty sure there were at least 5 different people rotating out of the lane I chose.  

The good news is I can already swim.  I was a lifeguard for several summers in my youth - indoors and out - and also taught swim lessons for little kids and adults.  And Maggie very kindly assured me that I am already ahead of many of the TNT tri participants in terms of my skill level in the water.  That made me feel good.  She also challenged me to choose the Advanced training sessions.  It's under consideration :)

It was a good workout and I can't wait for January when the Group Training Sessions at the pool start!

PS - If anyone finds a pair of purple flip flops - somebody stole Maggie's from the edge of the pool. Nothing is safe!