Masterful......

I've been threatening this for some time...I am going to swim with the Masters.  That phrase sounds a bit like swimming with the sharks and for me it felt like that.  I was a bit nervous and more than a bit hesitant to get up to the pool by SIX AM in the morning.

So I was taken a bit by surprise when the other Coach Bill parked himself by my lane as I finished my first 100 this morning.  He told me that the 6AM crowd was getting a bit too crowded and that some of the swimmers were going to invade my space, 7:00 to 7:40 land.  He said this in the future tense but then suddenly Sally (maybe not her real name I won't tell) announced our sets and everyone took off.  With the obvious expectation that I'd be joining them.  Only one thing to do, swim.

I had to modify their sets a bit due to my lack of Individual Medleyness, preferring my only too strokes of freestyle and backstroke.  And the 200s were a bit much for me so I did 150s for those two sets.  But other than that, I did it.  I made up those missed yards and kept up with all of the intervals.  Of course, they were slow people intervals but still faster intervals than I'd ever done.  Like a true master, I'll list my set the way they do:

Warmup
200 free
300 drills (100 of kick, catchup, fingerdrag)

Main set
6 x 100 free at 2:05
2 x 150 free first slow second at pace
8 x 50 free at 1:05

Warmdown
200 free

So there you have it, I've taken the plunge and now don't have much of a choice but to swim with them at 7AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I'm there anyway and they're in the lanes near me so I'll just have to be masterful.  And, yes, 2000 yards is the most I've ever swam at a time.