First Rainy Season Swim at Metro

It's been a while since I last swam. It think it was at Renz and Sandra's Swim Graduation. Anyway, Violet and I decided to go swim first before going to our July 9 Toastmasters Meeting.

Imagine my surprise when a group of 13 folks "paid" for my entrance fee to the pool! See, when I got there, there was this group of teenagers looking bored and sitting idly outside of the pool premises.

Apparently their guardian's becoming frustrated thinking that the pool was closed since there were no attendants. I sort of reassured her and so I went to the pool's ticket booth but it was closed.

I went around asking for confirmation and directions because I called up earlier in the week and was told the pool was open. The lady guardian of the group just followed me around.

After some walking around and asking questions, I was told to pay at the ticket booth of the cinema. The lady was relieved to find the pool was indeed open. I was about to pay my Php100 entrance fee when she offered me a free entrance ticket!

I asked where the ticket came from and one teenager volunteered that it's part of prize they received for winning a dance contest in an event last July 4! They had extra tickets and gave one to me. Wow, talk about me getting lucky, huh?

The swim went very well. Violet came pretty late but still managed to give me some interesting feedback, the main one being my almost absent kick.

Anyway, I didn't feel any discomfort this time with either of my shoulders. Maybe my shoulder strengthening exercises at home and the long layoff from swimming worked.




Violet was surprised to learn that I've had rehab therapy for both shoulders already. I had six sessions for my left shoulder in 2007 and twelve sessions for my right shoulder in 2008. I also had a back rehab therapy way back in 2004 which basically inspired my swimming and this blog.

Anyway, for this swim, I continued to practice bilateral breathing and:

  • Learned that when breathing on the left, I need to turn the head to inhale AHEAD of recovering the left arm. This I noticed with my right breathing.

  • Needed to relax further when pushing off from walls.


  • Reminded myself to exhale consciously from the nose and not too much from the mouth.

  • Completely forgot to do the 2-beat crossover kick that I did in the past.

  • Forgot to dolphin kick after pushing from wall.




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