After shutting down a little over three weeks ago, my pool re-opened today.  Covid cases in Pennsylvania have been controlled enough, that the State government has once again allowed access to gyms and pools.

I was excited to go swim, because I was just starting to really enjoy it, when the pool closed down.  The session that my coach gave me to do today, was not a long one, but it turned out to be quite demanding.

After some warm up lengths, my main set consisted of 20 x 75 yards on 20″ rest.  These intervals were to be swum with a pull buoy and paddles, with the first 50 yards done ‘long and strong’ and the final 25 yards, ‘fast and powerful’.

Swimming with a pull buoy and paddles, is great for building strength in your upper body swim muscles.  You get no assistance from a kick and the paddles create increased resistance on the pull.  If you swim correctly, the main muscle group you use is your lats.  I must have swum correctly this evening, because by the end of the session, my lats were very tired and I was slowing down considerably.

As I started to slow down, I began to get a little discouraged.  Then I stopped beating myself up; I remembered that I have not built up any swim endurance yet.  I need to be patient; I will get better.

Hopefully, the pool will now stay open for good.  It’s kind of hard to be a triathlete, if you don’t actually get to swim!