Diving Back In: 'You're Going to Die'

Washington Post reporter Paul Tenorio will train with a swim club over the next few months and chronicle his journey at Diving Back In, his reachforthewall.com blog, as he attempts to transform from regular guy/sportswriter to competitive swimmer. He'll share everything from the size of his waistline to his best times.

The alarm sounded at 3:55 a.m. on Monday and I rolled over and smacked my phone. My room was dark and so was everything outside. I've seen the clock at this time in recent years, but more often it was as I was going to sleep and not when it was time to wake up.

This whole thing was really going to happen.

Practice had been set up at the last minute, and the night before I had made my "last meal" before going healthy: baby back ribs. Sad, I know. Got a call later in the night from Curl-Burke Coach Jeff King. He was ready for me to start.

At 4:30 a.m. at Alexandria's Lee District Park.

Gulp.

I felt surprisingly good Monday morning -- probably because of my anxiousness to get started.

Those good feelings quickly sank when I stepped onto the scale for my first weigh-in. 193 pounds. Ugh. Those ribs probably didn't help.

I met King by the side of the pool, where he gave me a rundown of how this was going to start. First, a hot shower to get the muscles warmed up and some stretching.

"It'll wake you up," King said. "And it'll wake up your muscles."

My first workout was an exercise King aptly called "catch up." Holding the edge of a kickboard in front of me, with swim fins on, I would slowly take strokes with my arms, face in the water (stroke right, hold-the-board, stroke left, hold-the board).