After using my Parks and Recreation card to beep myself in today at the Matt Dishman pool, I decided to check out the fitness machines before swimming, but the door wouldn’t open so I waited until someone came out and started to enter when a young woman from the registration area came running to say that I couldn’t go in that area because I had a bag with me.

        I told her that I usually use another facility, and just wanted to see what was available, so she went back to the desk and beeped the door open for me.

        I have no idea why the entrance is so closely guarded.

        The fitness machines looked much like those at my usual recreation center so I may decide to use them when it gets a little cooler.

        In the pool’s dressing area, I got into my suit, stood under the shower for a minute or two, and after getting a pull buoy and a kicking board found that most of the lanes already had two swimmers so I chose to swim with a rather heavy, very slow female swimmer.

        As I started to put on one of my flippers, I noticed that both of my ankles were quite puffy. Not just a little bit; it looked like I have a circulatory problem, or perhaps there’s too much salt in my diet. I’d have to check to see what I could find on the internet.

        Ten laps come first in my routine.  That’s free style (with flippers) - up and back ten times, a total of 500 yards – swum at an easy pace with flip turns.  I hardly ever do one of those turns without remembering that a former coach said that it looks like I’m demonstrating how to do them in slow motion.  Some swimmers are able to turn themselves into a ball and quickly somersault, but I’ve gotten into the bad habit of doing it in two steps – head down toward the bottom first and then the legs come over hardly bent at all.  My hands pull against the water to get my legs over. 

        Keeping track of the lap I’m swimming is second nature, and I have a habit of counting the strokes to see if I’m using 16 to complete the 25 yards.  I’m not totally satisfied with that number, as I know that better swimmers use fewer.  There’s a Japanese swimmer at that pool that uses 14.

        The woman with whom I was splitting the lane got out of the pool while I was on the third lap so I had it all to myself until the sixth lap when a much thinner young female let me know that she was getting in.  She was a breast stroker, and with one of those in the lane, you know that you’re probably going to be kicked a couple of time.  She got me twice.

        So after the 500, I moved over to the next lane which was vacant and kicked 200 yards with a kick board and my swim fins.  As you have to keep your head up, and you want to kick near the surface, your back and stomach get a good stretch.  You also get a chance to see anything of interest in the six-lane pool.

        Then my goggles go on again, and on my back I do 100 using the butterfly kick.  That means that both legs sweep up and down together, and I was trying to reduce the number I needed for each 25.  By kicking deeper than usual and sweeping hard all the way to the surface, I got the number down to 42.  I’ll have to try that more, as I think I can do better.  It’s great for abdominal muscles.

        During the 200 breast stroke, I usually think of that Japanese swimmer again.  He has a way of coming out of the water upright at the end of the arm pull.  That puts his legs deeper in the water and he has a powerful kick.  I wish the side of the pool were glass so that I could stand there and watch him do it.  I just don’t understand the mechanics, as it seems to me that having the legs so deep in the pool inhibits the glide from the arm movement.  Because of this lack of understanding, I usually swim half of the 200 in the old flat style before trying once again to work out the details of the new style.

During the following 500 yard freestyle with a pull buoy between my thighs but no flippers, my mind tends to wander. Part of the time I concentrate on recovering my arms close to the water, inserting my hand farther in front of me than usual, and pulling hard all the way past my body which I rotate to face alternate sides of the pool with each stroke. At other times, random thoughts enter. For a lap or two today, I was speculating about whether it would be better for my son to get a dog or a cat. He has said that he really liked a cat we had before, and maybe another one would fill the bill, but a dog is friendlier. It would greet him at the door, want to be near him, would force him to go outside and get more exercise, for a dog has to be walked regularly.

As I was on about lap eight of that 500, I started wondering if I’d be able to finish – not because I was tired, but because I needed a toilet – badly.

I struggled on until I finished, decided that I’d come back for my 100 yard backstroke, left my flippers and kick board at the end of the pool to signify that I wasn’t done, and as I walked toward the dressing room, saw a young woman with a maroon suit looking for a lane. I thought that it would be just my luck for her to take the one I’d been using.

        When I got back, I had guessed right; she was in that lane, but I was lucky – a man was leaving lane one so I’d be alone.

         During the 100 back with flippers, I counted strokes again, and used only 13 for each length.  That’s better than my freestyle, but I know that I’m cheating a little.  After pushing off, I kick for awhile before starting the stroke, and I know that as I rotate from side to side with each stroke, I’m able to kick harder.  Sometimes while doing the freestyle I have to remind myself to kick.  I think often of a former team-mate who often said that his legs just “sort of wave around” back there.

        After my workout, I sat in the hot tub awhile. I like to sit close to one of the nozzles so that a heavy stream of water massages my back muscles, and while I was sitting there today, I checked on my ankles again and they both looked normal. The swelling had gone. That was good news – another reason for swimming at least 3 times a week.

        Sitting there is always restful, as the exercise you’ve just had has removed all your cares.

        Then it’s off to the locker room to get ready to go home.

        Though I’m hearing impaired and can’t understand much of anything that’s said until my hearing aids are in place, there are usually a lot of men getting dressed and conversation flows. That’s a good feeling; it’s a social time that provides a nice ending.