swimming in the sun

The pool in Kurobe, where I swim, is an 8 lane 25 meter pool surrounded by windows on 3 sides.
I usually swim in the late afternoon or evenings so there isn't much sunlight left by the time I get there. Besides, Toyama prefecture is a cloudy, rainy prefecture so there isn't much sunlight in general. But yesterday the sun was shining brightly when I got in the water at 5:00. The pool becomes a different world when this happens. The water is bright blue, and you can see clearly to the other end. It kind of feels like swimming in an outdoor pool. I love it.

My first swimming memories are from the outdoor pool at home in Grande Prairie. We used to go down to Bear Creek Park (now Muskoseepee Park) and swim there in the summer. The season's short in GP so the pool usually opens the long weekend in May is closed by September. I vaguely remember taking swimming lessons there, but what I do remember clearly is swimming with my Dad. The pool is L shaped with the short part of the L being the shallow end. I clearly remember him teaching my how to glide off the wall. I know I wasn't very big at the time because my younger brother wasn't with us (if he had been big enough I know he would have been there because he's part fish and it was extremely difficult to keep him away from water), it was only me and my dad. I remember the smells of the chlorine mixed in with the summer smells of trees and grass. Over and over again we pushed off the wall in the summer sun. It's a simple memory, but one of my favorites.


Warm up: 700RIM (only 100fly) 400kick
200 scull/swim
400 kick no board alt 100fly/100breast
200 swim

my left shoulder and my left ankle were not feeling up to par today. oh well, the sun was great.