Taking the plunge

Today my Fit Camp comrades and I hit the pool.

First, we warmed up by doing 20 minutes on the Spin bike and 15 minutes on the Krankcycle. Then, it was a mad dash the locker rooms to change into our swim suits.

Charlotte announced that we would be swimming laps and asked us each to complete one lap so she could assess our abilities.

I'm a self-taught swimmer. I can swim well enough to prevent myself from drowning using a doggie-paddle type stroke, but until today I had never attempted to complete a lap at a public pool.

After we completed our initial laps, Charlotte divided us into two teams. The campers on my team were given flippers to help us swim better. We were asked to swim five laps across the pool and back. The other team wasn't given flippers and was asked to swim 10 laps.

Wearing the yellow flippers, I felt like a huge, uncoordinated duck. I wasn't sure if I would make it across the pool with them, but I didn't want to be the first-ever Fit Camper to have to be rescued by a lifeguard so I swam on. By the time I completed my fifth lap, I had grown used to them and looked like a slightly more graceful swimming duck.

Just when we thought it was over, Charlotte gave us one more assignment. She handed out kick boards and asked us to hold them upright under the water while we sprinted halfway across the pool and back again. The kick boards added extra resistance as we hopped, ran, walked and basically made it across any which way we could before handing off the kick boards to our partners who then sprinted with them. We took turns until each person had completed five laps.

When it was over, one team had broken a record, finishing faster than any Fit Camp team since 2006.

We had barely hoisted ourselves out of the pool when Charlotte handed us our assignments for next week. Looks like more running, strength training and a hike up the Pinnacle. Enough to whip us into shape, that's for sure.