I intend to do a Triathlon. But there is a small problem… I am afraid of water and cannot swim!

I finally got some recommendations and joined the De Anza College for PE 26A, the novice swimming class. Yesterday was the first day of  the Spring semester class. The class started at 10AM with a large number of nervous students sitting on the bleachers for the instructor to start the class. It was a little cold.  Mary Donahue spent more than an hour on the class formalities, getting signatures, tour of the locker rooms, giving us details of her expectations of the class, grading system, homework and term paper details.  Mary will have us dive into the water on the last day of class! It is scary to think of this  but I am excited at the thought! The class started very slow but we finally got to go into the water.

What was nice:

-There were at least 4 additional instructors in the water to help us students. We spent a good amount of time in the water.

- We began by forming beach balls (crouch position with legs at the chest) and floating. With a partner we took turns and pushed the person in the beach ball deep into the water till they touched the floor. It is interesting to see how fast one actually floats back up!

- We were also taught how to stand up from that position.

- We then tried to float in an extended position. We kicked off from the wall and floated with arms and legs extended.

Not so nice:

- Mary was clear that she would not let anybody use goggles. With my poor eyesight, I would have preferred to use optical goggles (with corrective lenses) that I ordered from Keifer. But, I decided that I would rather go with the flow of the class and do as instructed and get familiar with the water. There must be a good reason she does not want us to wear goggles! I will not complain…I want to learn to swim! So far so good! Cannot wait to go back 10AM next Saturday.

Mary wants us to keep a journal. I thought it would be good to write a blog instead of the interesting journey ahead!