Remedial apple

Plucked like a bad apple out of the batch....I was the bad apple. Me. In the swim workout Monday and told I cannot return to the regular workout because I need to "retrain" my muscle memory, my stroke is so poor. Here I was feeling so good about myself and the swim. I got right in with my head down and did a long warmup. I trailed as caboose (what else is new) in the lane and felt like I actually liked what was on the dry erase board. It was a pyramid of sorts: 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100 for warm up and I was hanging. I mean, I had lifted chest and back earlier in the gym and was tired, but I was right in there on the interval.

"How patient are you?" Came the coach's voice from above me. I looked up to see his silhouette against the bright lights on deck. The morning sky was still dark and cold, but the pool felt okay, surprisingly.

"Very patient," I answered, somewhat hesistantly.

He plucked me out of my lane and kicked me down to the sandbox lane! Me, I had to get out of my comfortable 1:40 interval (I even chose to get in with some faster girls that day, so we may have been pushing it a little more than that) and go swim in the remedial lane! I felt like the kid who had to leave the regular reading class to go in the remedial group (of course, I have never actually experienced this, but always felt so sorry for those outcasts...). I actually looked around to see if the coach was pulling anyone else into this "special" workout. Nope. Just me. Then I looked to see if anyone else was watching me. A few. Ouch. So, I swallowed my pride and strutted down to the very slowest end of the pool, as proud as I could pretend to be. I pretended it was a unique Half Ironman prep workout and I was getting all of the attention. Turns out, it kind of was.

I am lame for being so arrogant and above it, because the help was really very useful. My attitude inside was so flippant, though I tried my best to appear gracious. There I was, bitter that I was missing out on all the meters in the pool while everyone else was grinding away, and I had to go practice stupid catchup drills! My hubby tells me all the time my stroke is catchup, so how was this suppose to help me again? Hmmm? It did! It was a triffle challenging, even, and coach told me by the end of the drill, I had already improved my stroke. Seems it was turned upside down. My catch and pull is too slow and my recovery and entry is fast and sloppy. Actually, there are a few more things wrong with it, but that is what we focused on Monday. He made me stop and hold my hand for a count before allowing it to re-enter the water into the catch and pull. Interesting....it really worked. Am I missing out on a few good swims before Soma, or will this really benefit me in 4 weeks? I have to hope for the latter.

I am still a little sad that I will not be in the thick of things at tomorrow's workout. But, in a tri geeky kind of way, I am actually looking forward to the private tutoring I am receiving. Sometimes being a remedial apple is okay, as long as I am not rotten with an attitude, I suppose.