Lots of Laps

Today Kate and I took the next step in our triathlon training. We went to the Greater Plymouth Community Center and took on our 1/2 mile swim in an actual pool!

We have both been swimming in our apartment complex pools, which are less than half the size of a actual pool. Kate and I were both loosing our minds a little bit swimming back and forth, and back and forth and back and forth in our little pools.

Kate did a little research and found out that for a mere $7, we could come and swim in the community center pool for the day. That price is totally worth it for us to feel more comfortable swimming the half a mile distance in the triathlon next weekend!

The swimming area was really big. It was separated into a kid pool area, complete with a massive water slide, and a lap swimming area. I was just happy to be separated from the screaming and splashing children. I was all business at the pool today!

Its really nice that this lap swim area is always up for people to use.

Kate and I were excited to get into the water! 

I was feeling a little silly too!

Meet my lane for the next 1/2 mile! Isn’t she a beauty?

We were a bit confused about the distance we had to swim because we had read different things online and then the lifeguards were telling us different things, but in the end we both know that we definitely did more than a 1/2 mile in the pool today!

Swimming burns some serious calories!

And its such a nice option to have when switching things up a bit. I like to give my legs, muscles and joints a rest from pounding the pavement every once in a while!

  

It was hard getting into the groove the first lap or two, but then I started to feel the flow and the laps were flying by!

The one thing that was an issue that definitely slowed us down were the turns! Kate reminded me that the Schuylkill River won’t have walls for us to kick off of or anything, so we each turned around after each lap without touching the wall. It was hard to be gliding and then come to a complete stop, turn around and then get back going again!

 

We are hoping that the current in the Schuylkill will help us at one point though, specifically towards the end!

After we completed our laps we did a few extra laps for fun. We had a paddleboard and did some kicks and worked on our strokes.

       

It was nice to complete the race distance and still feel really great swimming farther in the water!

It was also nice to just have some fun playing around in the water!

  

Kate and I had a great time getting our swim on today! We have plans to come back next week at least once, maybe twice more before the big race on Sunday!

Do you have any swimming pointers for us? I feel comfortable swimming in a pool, but swimming in murky river water with unknown creatures below makes me nervous.  It’s going to be a whole new world in that water! Any words of wisdom?