I suspect the reason fish swim in schools is that without buddies to encourage them to swim their best, they'd get complacent, swim too slow, and get gobbled up.
At least that's one of the upsides for me as part of the Christiansburg Aquatic Center master's swim group, coached by Judy Wolfe.
Yesterday we swam 12 x 100's, with diminishing rest, as part of our main set. A new member of the group was in the lane next to me and as we pushed off together, I noticed she was just a bit ahead of me, which really motivated me!! I did all I could to squeeze out as much distance per stroke as I could. By the 6th repeat I was able to match her and hold that for the duration of the set. (I'm the 4th column, she's the 8th. Each 100 was one minute plus that number of seconds.)
I finished feeling so accomplished and happy!!
There's no possible way I could have done this on my own. She said the same. It's great feedback to look over and see where you are relative to a similar/slightly faster swimmer.
We all swam well, with my lane-mate and friend Jen setting another PR for herself!!
If you have a master's or similar group in your area, I would encourage you to consider trying it out! Coaches and fellow swimmers will help you get the hang of things and there are lanes of varying speeds. Don't be intimidated! There's no need! You'll see that we are all in it together, and the benefits of coached groups swims are tremendous in terms of swimming skills, fun, and friendship!
As an aside, I found it amazing that our coach could track and record all the times for us, and send us off the wall with three lanes leaving on two different intervals (plus another lane was doing a different workout.) Then there was me, sometimes wondering if I was on the first or second 50 of the 100!!! LOL.
I'm so fortunate to be part of this group and it continues to grow, making it even more fun. Want to be part of it? We swim Sundays 5-6 pm and Thursday 6-7 pm (Mon/Wed 7 pm in March due to swim meet conflicts).
