fitness

Thoughts about returning to the pool

Diane Harper

Today was my first day back since the lockdown last winter, and only about the fourth since the start of the pandemic. Swimming is a time of contemplation for me, so here is the list of things I was thinking about today.

  1. It’s great to see everyone! I have missed my pool buddies, and I really enjoyed catching up on work and life news as we changed after practice.
  2. I have forgotten how to do this. The flippers, pull buoy and flutter board are all in the cupboard at home. I nearly went into the water wearing my glasses. When do I take off my mask? I completely missed the rest after that set. Again. Oops.
  3. There are so many people! I don’t know them all. Ack! also, I am really bad at introducing myself to new people, and it’s nice to know that the club is at maximum membership. It will help our little non-profit stay afloat financially. Plus it is a welcome option for people who were struggling to find suitable lane swim times at the city pools.
  4. Swimming with four people in a lane is hard. We aren’t all the same speed and I need to figure out how to work with that again. On the plus side, it is way easier to track my distance, even without a swim watch.
  5. My arm hurts. I really should have mentioned that to the coach before starting. On the other hand, taking it easy in the pool means I can swim five strokes or more without breathing – yay!. But I am a worse kicker than ever because I barely use my legs in open water – boo!
  6. It’s really noisy in here. Enclosed space, 20 swimmers, music on the speaker system… I miss the pond or the river, where I rarely hear anything except the wind and in the waves while swimming.
  7. Pachelbel’s Canon is perfect for swimming, at least at my pace today. Air on a G String works pretty well too. I haven’t felt like singing songs in my head in ages. It was pretty sweet.
  8. I forgot to ask E about how the arm she broke last winter has healed. Obviously it’s better since she doesn’t have the cast, but is she back to all the running and so on? Thank goodness there is another practice next week!
Image: an almost empty indoor swimming pool.

Diane Harper lives and swims with the Ottawa Centre Masters in Ottawa.

Published by Diane Harper

Diane Harper is a public servant who lives and swims (and bikes) in Ottawa. In her hobby life, she is Siglinde Harfnerstochter, a 6th C Merovingian housewife from the city of Metz. Her primary interests are cooking, textile arts and bonecarving. Siglinde lives in the canton of Caldrithig, Barony of Skraeling Althing, Kingdom of Ealdormere.

2 thoughts on “Thoughts about returning to the pool”

  2. I’m about to go to the indoor pool during public opening hours for the first time since 2019! It’s going to be a very different experience since I’m taking my 1 year-old for a little splashing session, but I can relate to the “I’ve forgotten how to do this” part. I’ve been back for training sessions but then we have the pool to ourselves and there’s no general public around.
    And I love how you sing classical music in your head! I might give those two pieces a try sometime 🙂

Comments are closed.