Here fishy, fishy, fishy....

My lane at Masters this morning had 6 swimmers in it! And for the first time that I can remember, I got a draft. It was great!

Wolfgang has great workouts at 6am, and Kurt has learned how to get more swim speed out of me these days than I often think is possible (though not lately, since haven't been swimming Thursdays this month), but I am usually alone, leading the lane, or being a good lanemate and keeping my 5 sec. spacing and then fall back and don't get the draft.

The 6 am Masters is a small group, where everyone pretty much knows everyone. Today there were 3 newcomers in my lane when I hopped in. It was dark and steamy so I even had to ask Wolfgang which lane I should start in.

We all commingled fine for the first 200 m on our own, then with the first set, one guy started to put on flippers, and I promptly moved myself to the back of the lane. Things started off well even with less than 5 sec between guy #2 and guy #3. Then Whitney and Tom (two speedy swimmers that are regulars in my lane, but often in front of me) joined us and I was in a swimmer sandwich since they just jumped in back. All I could think was..... ut oh....

But I soon found out how great a good draft is as I stuck on the feet of the folks in front of me and held my own with my lane placing. I was making splits I usually have to use a self pep-talk to achieve. It was fun! 5-6 people in my lane for a 6am swim was GREAT. I hope some of them come back again.

-A

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