tennis, life and a few things in between

Can you believe this place in Chile? Imagine doing 10 laps of this swimming pool lengthwise! On a jet-ski maybe. It 1.3 km long, 800 mtrs wide at its shortest point and varies from ankle depth to 8 mtrs deep. It employs 41 life guards and has lifesaving devices which pop out of the bottom in various locations in case of rescue requirements. Built jointly by Korean/Japanese interests, it’s expected to have a business life scale of 15 years. Wonder how they clean the thing?  My goodness, this looks like the perfect paradise to me: the endless long pool.  Wait, one glitch: bottomlines , :).  But where is it in Chile?

I managed 40 laps under 20 minutes!  Total did 78 laps: 40 freestyle, 10 breast, 10 backstroke, 2 breast, 10 free timed at 4:45, 2 breast, 4 free timed at 1:45.  I had little bit more time today, so decided to improve my flip turns.  Thought about Steve‘s stress on streamline – when he demo that on the deck as if he could reach the ceiling, :).  Janet Evans is remembered for her long unconventional strokes and inexhaustible cardiorespiratory reserves – today I tried to stay under the water longer after the turns.  Steve used to pound on me: getting streamlined and should at least get pass the solid blue divider.  I always take a breath almost right after turning – lazy, I suppose.  The pool was empty.  Not sure what accelerated my timing today, was the streamlining and staying in the water longer did the trick?  And hopefully I can keep doing it.

Marge is a cute lady who comes to the pool every day, does 72 laps in about hour or so.  So I nick named her Ms. Mile – 72 laps equals to a mile.  She must be in her 80s, over sized thick glasses make her eyes enormous out of proportion.  Her limps are all bones and skins.  There is a Robert.  At first, I thought they’re a couple.  The first time I ran into Robert by the entrance, I was starlet at how tall he’s, well over 6′.  Guess in the water semi naked, we all look different.  Thank god we have cloth to cover.

Finally, I made it to the pool 8am this morning!  OMG I still remember how to swim.  Everything looks the same, except the elevator is out of service.  When I left, there was an elder man on wheel chair trying to get down through the stairs.  I did 10 laps, without missing a single flip-turns but over 10 minutes: speed is gone so is my endurance.  Next 10 laps was mixed with breast with free and breast plus few pit stops.  When an annoying man joined the lane, I was about to start my last few laps.  He went ahead.  That’s fine, I didn’t have to work to hard to maintain the lead.  But after two laps, I caught up with him.  And again in another two laps.  So I told him to let me go.  He screamed, “then why didn’t you go?”  The lane is standard, if the swimmer isn’t considerate, it’s very hard for the one that’s behind to pass at the end.  So I gone ahead, swam hard, trying to maintain the lead.  It actually it’s great.   I ended up did straight 20 laps, caught up with him twice more.  I never thought I’d do 40 laps.  After that, I did another 10.  So 50 laps in total.  Wow … not bad for absent for so long .. SO Giants will win too, :-)