a Swimless October

I went the whole month of October without setting foot in a swimming pool. And I loved every day! But I have an orange and black scary cat Halloween splish, so I decided to go to the pool today just to show off the suit. The plan was 15 minutes. I spent 5 minutes staring at the pool, not wanting to jump into the cold water, but when one of the lifeguards walked by and said 'nice festive suit!', my visit was worth it, and I hopped in.

The first 100 yards were freestyle. I felt drunk. Like I was weaving all over the place. I know I wasn't, but my arms felt like wet limp noodles. I was doing 14 strokes per lap, normal is 12-13, so I knew I was already out of shape. After 100 yards, I had to switch strokes.

Backstroke was next. I kicked off the wall 5, 6,7 fly kicks, and bust through the surface sucking in a large gulp of oxygen. The first few strokes, each shoulder felt funny, click, click, click. I knew then I had to kick far off each wall to protect my shoulders, and I'd only swum 125 yards! ugh . 75 more back, long kicks off the wall, oxygen deprivation, but eventually the shoulders cooperated once again. Kicking off each wall, I was thinking maybe the only race I'll care about this winter is 100back, just devote myself to that one race and see what I can do. Yep, I think that's my plan for masters swimming this year.

Enough backstroke. Time to change to breaststroke. I thought for sure the knees would creak and cry, but they did not. Eight strokes per lap, and I was surprised that I was on a normal stroke count, and nothing hurt. But don't overdo it!

One more 100 freestyle. I was starting to feel a little dizzy. All that back and forth of my eyes from one side to the black line to the other. I've been having this problem these past few years when I swim freestyle in a pool. Never in the lake, I think because I can't see anything, so my eyes don't f@($ with my brain. I've had a long history of motion sickness. I get sick when I ride in the back seat of a car. I get sick if I try to read in a car. I get sick if I am in the front seat of a car, on a curvy road. I get sick on boats. I've even thrown up 3 or 4 times in my regulator when scuba diving. My equilibrium is not normal. I've been getting a little worse as I get older, and experiencing this dizziness and nausea when I swim is definitely disturbing. I think I'm going to try taking a ginseng pill every day and see if that helps. If not, I'll be doing more research for other remedies.

400 yards and I finally stopped at the wall. Man that was a long 400 yards. I threw in a couple 50's drills, still dizzy. Then I thought I should try to swim a 25fly, so I went for a 100IM. Surprisingly the fly felt ok, of course, I was going at a turtle's pace. Back and breast were ok, freestyle, oh man, dizzy again.

a few more 25's, with a stop to loosen the goggle straps, and I called it a day. Climbing out of the pool, thinking I have vertigo! It took a half hour of being outside walking the dogs in the cool air before my head and stomach felt normal again. (And pizza and chocolate cake that I just ate didn't hurt either!)