Swim training

Most of you know that I have been competing in triathlons in the summers for the past several years. There is actually a Hannover triathlon the first weekend in September. And there is a Hannover triathlon club.

Amateur sports here happen on a club level. Other than at the International School, there are no school sports. Kids, adults, anyone who wants to compete in something joins a club team. So when I learned about the Hannover 96 Triathlon Club, I looked into it and sent them an email. It's important to know before you read on that I never joined any sort of tri club back home. Partly because it's expensive and partly because I don't really like triathlon people. Actually the women are usually ok, but the guys are a little socially awkward, really into their gadgets and heart monitors and GPS watches, and say things like "I run 9 miles on my treadmill every night after my kids go to bed while I watch documentaries about bike engineering. Then I spend two hours on Play Station before bed." These are the kinds of guys I attracted in high school and college too. Thank goodness Brian came along.

Even though I knew the same kinds of people might be in the Hannover tri club, I thought it would be a good way to learn some new bike routes and get coaching on my swim technique, as well as a chance to practice speaking German. So I emailed them, in English and German (thanks, Google Translate). It turns out the price was not too high and they invited me to come to a swimming session to try it out. The weird thing is that they swim from 9-10pm on Tuesdays and Fridays. So after German class ended a couple of Tuesdays ago, I went off the the pool. I was nervous. I was nervous because I didn't know if any of them would speak English and I didn't want to have no idea what was happening in German. I was nervous because I don't think I have ever been swimming continuously for an hour. I was nervous because I am usually getting ready for bed at that time of night, not working out. I was nervous about biking home in the cold and dark. There were many excuses available but I decided to go anyway.

I headed to the pool after German class. I waited and waited and the team never came. I was at the wrong pool. In the complex where the Hannover 96 soccer team practices, there are actually two pools and I had gone to the wrong one. So last night I tried again. I was still nervous but not as much as before. When I got there and I was the only woman waiting and the coach talked to me entirely in German and I caught about 30% of what he said. Then I was scared. But I was in too deep (sorry, bad pun) to turn back so I put my suit on and headed out to the pool. It got better. The coach sat down with me and told me, in English, what lane I should be in and what the workout would be. A few other women showed up. And I was able to do the workout - mostly. I am not good at backstroke so that was a bit of a disaster, but otherwise it went ok. The coach talked in German the rest of the time but they were short phrases with some hand motions to go with them so I was ok. The other people there didn't really talk to me. I don't know if it's because they are German and therefore not outgoing, or because they could tell I didn't speak much German or what. But I was able to keep up and got home safely around 10:30.

I didn't talk to the guys much but I did spot one heart monitor and a few fancy waterproof watches. There may have been some conversations about Play Station, but I couldn't understand them.

I am getting better at doing things that make me scared and uncomfortable. There are a lot of opportunities for that since we moved here. (Yesterday I successfully bought parmesan cheese from the deli counter at the grocery store. I even knew about how many grams to ask for! There's no shredded parmesan here, you just do it yourself. Sorry for the tangent).

I hoped after last night it would be clear to me whether I should join the tri club or not, but it isn't. The pros of joining are that I could practice speaking German a little, my swimming would improve, and I might learn new bike routes. There is an outside chance that I would meet people I like. The cons are that the schedule is weird and I like to work out in the middle of the day now that I am not working full-time. The other cons are that I can see myself not really want to go to training, but feeling like I should go because I've paid for it and it's good for me. I might also feel awkward while I'm there.

So I will open it up for your votes and comments. Comment on the blog if you like ( I think you log in with your gmail address or create a google login) or send me an email with your thoughts.