I had a hint of how things were going to go, the night before, when I was copying my morning swim workout on to paper: 50 breaststroke no rest.
Text to coach: Hey, coach. I don’t know how to swim breaststroke…

The day didn’t start for me until well after 6:00 thanks to a crazy night of hot flashes that decimated sleep. (hot flashes are stupid) So no swimming until after the kids were on the bus and even then I was so damn tired that swimming was questionable from moment to moment.

I finally made it to the pool just before 9am. Not to my regular pool which is closed for repair, but the local Y which so graciously lets me swim during the repair. The “fast” lane had 2 others during my warm up and I could feel the stress of the sleepless night start to fade away (it always does in the pool).

And then, promptly at 9:00, swim lessons started, a swim lane was removed, and then there were 7 of us in the “fast” lane. I’m not sure what the definition of “fast” is, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have included what was happening in that lane. I was right back to tired and cranky and now in a traffic jam of leisurely breaststrokers. I started to wonder if this is the universe’s way of getting my to finally learn the breaststroke. Or maybe it was sign that I should just get out of the pool, go home, and get some sleep?  In my sleepy, soggy haze, I tried to figure out what I should do with this time.

I optimistically tried to complete the first fast 25 yards – nope! Drills! Lots of drills. One arm, side drills, catch-ups, drills, drills, drills.

And then two finished…there were just 5 of us…oh maybe I could figure out how to do my planned workout, imperfectly, between my lane mates. I have no idea how, but it started to work. I’ve never had to pass people or weave through a lane or turn with more than one person resting at the end – it was sort of mayhem, but is was sort of fun to focus on something other than swimming back and forth.

I was happy with myself for getting the workout done. And in the end, the drills had been perfect as I had a mini breakthrough on my rotation (or lack there of , when breathing to the right).

As I was leaving, I passed by the pool, where all the swim lanes had been removed to accommodate a very large aqua aerobics class – I guess my timing could have been even more interesting than it was!

The day’s imperfection was highlighted when I uploaded the session and realized I’d missed 2x100s when writing out the workout and when there was just no way to fit in yoga with work and life. And twice again when I caught myself opening deodorant to put on my toothbrush only to correct it by grabbing my curly hair product, instead. It was all perfectly imperfect.