Bucket list update

Okay, so I checked off one thing on my bucket list today.  Cracking the breathing while swimming laps.  Learned to swim when I was around 10 in Trichy in an Olympic size pool.  Dived off the highest platform, shaking and shivering, et al.  And then a long break meant that the skills that were just-learned-but-not-really-used rusted away.  The weekend I got engaged, I almost drowned.  Sheer arrogance, was swimming along without a life jacket after a whole day of tubing with one, couldn't find the bottom with my feet (we were in shallow water the whole day), panicked and froze and almost drowned.


Since then, the recovery has been a huge thing for me.  Got into a pool because of the kids - didn't want my fears to become theirs.  The cockroach thing has already transmitted itself to my daughter....why saddle her with my fears, when she will need to have a few of her own?! Visiting my parents, with nothing else to do, I took the kids into the water with tiny, cute swimsuits and floats.  The kids totally switched personalities - the quiet daughter would sing.  Loudly.  And the ever moving and loud son was so stiff and still that even his hair stayed in place.  The pool had parts that slipped away beneath my feet and I would cling to the sides, quite pathetically, especially for someone who could swim.  Hard to explain unless you have been there.

Got a pool membership and the kids began their classes.  The little one imitated the elder one so much that the coach decided to co-opt him into the class, underage, within the first month.  Now that they were learning to swim - like really swim, I had to get my act together.  So began with baby steps.  Literally steps. And slowly did breadths.  The day I did one breadth easily, I celebrated.  Then got into this psycho thing, yes, another one about only being able to do breadths.  So limped away at lengths until it got easier and easier....both mentally and physically.

Today, I figured out the breathing.  Tried a few things when the kids were in their class and two things worked.  One, breathing out through my nose underwater and two, coming up for breath every other stroke instead of every two strokes.  Suddenly, felt myself gliding away and doing 8 full lengths and 12 breadths.  The breadths were a pair at a time, to and fro, slightly more than one length!

Am finally hungry after a swim because I have expended enough energy to justify hunger.  And the exhilaration from surpassing a physical/mental barrier makes me want to dive in again.  Now! :-D

G'night!