Last JCC class, more success, longer swims.

We had the last stroke swim class, read: insane aerobic interval training, last week, and it was a doozer.  My workouts during the week paid off, although the support staff calmly went about her business of making it look easier as always.  About the middle of the workout, when the instructors said, ok now 6 laps of freestyle in a row, I had to say, "You have got to be kidding me."  But I went ahead and did it, although there was some confusion about the distance that provides an interesting intersection of phenomena:

Classic catch-22 SNAFU:
1. Rather than keeping track of laps, the instructors were watching for the support staff to stop since she is always ahead of me.  (Cognitive Miser)
2. I though I was done, but figured the instructors kept better count, and they said to keep going. (Informational Influence)
3. So it is up to the support staff, who...you guessed it...was waiting for me to stop.  She did that so she could do an extra one--to really put me in my place?  (Downward Social Comparison)

This sillyness could have gone on for quite some time.  But after 7 laps, I had had enough and wanted some answers.  I thought that the instructors had just pulled the old aerobics instructor trick on me (5 more, now 4 more, now 6 more...) but the truth was even more interesting.  I was pretty annoyed for a moment, but got over it because it added up to doing 250m--a new record! 

It is legitimately hard to keep track of laps when you are flipping your body around and generally low on air.  Now 250m is something I can do a couple of times a workout, which gets you to 650-750m workout in a hurry.  I will keep pushing out the distance I do all at once, although I am not upping the distance too much because it is nice to not be totally exhausted at the end.  The 900m all freestyle workout is the goal for the next couple of weeks, if I could do 3X300m that would be pretty great.  For sure we are over the initial really bad challenge of breathing, and now repetition and muscle buildup combined with technique work will gradually get me the rest of the way.