How To Be Cool At Lap Swim
I have been swimming now for 2 months and therefore I am an expert.
My advice to everyone, regardless of skill level, is to swim in the "medium" lane. Avoid "slow" and "fast" at all costs because that's what everyone does.
I am sort of kidding about my advice, but not about this everyone-pile-up-in-medium phenomenon. I don't get it. Yesterday there were six people in each of the 2 medium lanes, and 1-3 in each of the slow and fast lanes.
It's like everyone is too cool for slow, but they don't want to stick their necks out to the whole rest of the swim population and be like "ooh hey look at me I think I am good because I am swimming in Fast!"
Anyway.
There is good people-watching at the pool. There is a handful of dark-tan-from-daily-noon-swim ladies who do this crazy looking reverse-rowboat stroke with floating noodles to hold them up and visors and sunglasses to protect their faces. (They appropriately go in slow.) There is also this dude who swims in total slow motion, with flippers, and I am pretty sure he goes to lap swim multiple times a day because a. he is tanner even than the rowboat ladies and b. I have seen him at morning swim and Greg has seen him at noon swim on the same day, anyway I have counted his strokes-per-minute and he seems to average about 10 or 12. Also there are the "straight swimmers", for whom there is no such thing as a set and no such thing as rest. There is also, apparently, for them, no such thing as logically yielding to a faster swimmer or to one swimming a set with flippers.
I have also recently learned that belly necklaces are "in" at the Temescal pool.
And, regarding me being an expert... As I got home from my run yesterday, I heard Greg talking on the phone to someone I correctly assumed was his mom.
Greg: Yeah, she's doing O.K. I mean, she's definitely gotten better.
...
Greg: Ooo I think she just got home. She's really swimming great!!
Me: I heard that.
Anyway Greg thinks I am now one of the good swimmers at lap swim, but he says that's not saying much so I shouldn't get too psyched.
My advice to everyone, regardless of skill level, is to swim in the "medium" lane. Avoid "slow" and "fast" at all costs because that's what everyone does.
I am sort of kidding about my advice, but not about this everyone-pile-up-in-medium phenomenon. I don't get it. Yesterday there were six people in each of the 2 medium lanes, and 1-3 in each of the slow and fast lanes.
It's like everyone is too cool for slow, but they don't want to stick their necks out to the whole rest of the swim population and be like "ooh hey look at me I think I am good because I am swimming in Fast!"
Anyway.
There is good people-watching at the pool. There is a handful of dark-tan-from-daily-noon-swim ladies who do this crazy looking reverse-rowboat stroke with floating noodles to hold them up and visors and sunglasses to protect their faces. (They appropriately go in slow.) There is also this dude who swims in total slow motion, with flippers, and I am pretty sure he goes to lap swim multiple times a day because a. he is tanner even than the rowboat ladies and b. I have seen him at morning swim and Greg has seen him at noon swim on the same day, anyway I have counted his strokes-per-minute and he seems to average about 10 or 12. Also there are the "straight swimmers", for whom there is no such thing as a set and no such thing as rest. There is also, apparently, for them, no such thing as logically yielding to a faster swimmer or to one swimming a set with flippers.
I have also recently learned that belly necklaces are "in" at the Temescal pool.
And, regarding me being an expert... As I got home from my run yesterday, I heard Greg talking on the phone to someone I correctly assumed was his mom.
Greg: Yeah, she's doing O.K. I mean, she's definitely gotten better.
...
Greg: Ooo I think she just got home. She's really swimming great!!
Me: I heard that.
Anyway Greg thinks I am now one of the good swimmers at lap swim, but he says that's not saying much so I shouldn't get too psyched.
Labels: enjoy the blog, geek, quotables
posted by Courtenay at 9/03/2007
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