Lane Pals

Like most swimmers I enjoy my swim more when swimming with others.  To do this I have joined swim clubs with coached workouts.  What I like about swimming with others is the challenge to keep up, the diversity of the workouts, not just doing the same ole, same ole unimaginative workout I would do on my own, and the friendships I have developed with other devoted swimmers.

Developing friendships with other swimmers is a unique experience.  In a coached workout you are given a number of "sets" to compete with short rests in between.  For example you might do a set of 10 50 yard laps of freestyle on 50 seconds each.  Depending on how quickly you swim you might get 5 to 15 seconds rest in between each.  During the rest period swimmers will often make a short comment or ask a question.  You have 40 seconds durning your next lap to think up your response or ask a question of your own.  Timing is everything so you need to pick your words carefully.  This makes for interesting conversations that are choppy and separated by short intervals of time.  Often one swimmer will start a joke or a riddle over a period of "repeats".  Each swimmer will then tell the next swimmer behind them as they come to the end of the lane before they take off again.  This is not unlike the old game of "telephone" where the message gets unrecognizably garbled by the end.  There is a lot of laughter in our workouts!  

When we do a set that "repeats to failure" the conversations drop off quickly.  In this kind of set you are to swim a designated distance (i.e., 200 yards) each time over a shorter time interval until you can no longer make the time.  In this kind of set you save your conversation for breathing!