math is easy...swimming is hard

Did I say I was at absolute zero with my swimming endurance? Well, I was wrong--I'm at about -50. Five laps, stopping after every length, sometimes using an effing kickboard, and I had to talk myself into starting up again every single time. On the lengths where I experimented with "real" swimming (the kind where you put your face in the water most of the time and do that rhythmic breathing thing from the red cross classes I took when I was 7), I thought my head would explode and/or I would pass out and drown by the time I got to the end of the pool. I think I might be doing it wrong.

On the bright side, there was no one in the pool room to point and laugh. Also, I did swim 250 meters...even if it was 25m at a time and took me nearly 16 minutes. And even if I was all rubber-legged and starving afterward and could barely drive home. Also good? It didn't hurt my ankle at all. (just my lungs, and my head, and that crampy muscle in my calf...)

As I was driving home, I tried to console myself by remembering that it was just 5 years ago that going 11 miles on my bike seemed like a challenge, and that walking 3 miles in an hour set my legs shaking afterward. Now, those things are easy, right? So swimming will someday be easy, too, and I'll look back on this post and oh, how I'll laaaugh!

Still, I think tris/open-water swims are a long way off.

You'll build up to it I am sure. I think the important thing is to try and enjoy yourself. I love the water though I rarely get to go swimming as I am not comfortable with a public pool and we don't have one of our own. It's great that it did not bother your ankle and it sure sounds like you got an excellent workout.