Where were we? Right. Nancie is my Thursday night Swimmy teacher. The Tuesday night teacher is a sassy young lady with multi-colored hair, multiple tattoos, and a bizarre name. I like her because her classes are comfortingly predictable, and because she's very fit and strong, but still suffers from cellulite like a normal human being. She's a fun teacher, but just doesn't compare with Nancie.
Before Nancie arrived, we had a number of Thursday night teachers. First there was Kathy, a sweet, Wonder Bread girl with a southern accent. She lasted for a few months, but ended up changing jobs and had to stop teaching. Next came another lady with a bizarre name. This lady frightened me at first, with her Western Long Island pushiness, but she did run a good class. She didn't give anybody any slack. She's just about 50 years old and has the body of a 26-year old. A very, very tan 26-year old who still wears workout gear from the 1980s. She left because she found the water too cold.
And now we have Nancie. Nancie is probably also around 50... 6 feet tall, with the long, lean body of a dancer. Nancie is from Iowa, and looks like what I imagine my friend Sarah will look like at 50, if she had bigger muscles. Nancie is also deeply, deeply tan (I'm not sure what to make of this trend -- it's not something the younger Swimmy teachers do). Nancie has a new hip and a new knee "and those are the only body parts I've bought that I'll tell you about." Yes, I believe hers are fake: she does look rather pneumatic in her tank suits.
Nancie is tough, but fair. "You grew it, you lift it," she commands, as we high-kick across the pool. Still, she tells people to go at their own pace. "You should be working in your target heart rate. Unless you're having one of those days where you're just lucky to have made it here at all tonight... maybe you don't feel like working so hard. You do what you need to do." She checks on us regularly to make sure we are still breathing, and requires that we make some sort of noise to confirm this. "Woo!" we all yell in unison. She has such enthusiasm that she makes us want to "woo."
Nancie schools us on our target heart rate, giving us charts as handouts, and reminds us to cool down if we ever have to leave early: "Not only can you pass out in the shower, but you can get vericose veins!" She understands what motivates us. She encourages us to activate different muscle groups: "you can keep your knees apart... I've turned off the underwater cameras, so you're safe." When she calls out a new move, she prefaces the change with "And then..." occasionally using a Muppet voice; this makes me giggle.
She tells the same corny jokes every week. "So this class runs until 8:30, right?" It starts at 6:00. At first, some of the new people would pause to evaluate the seriousness of this claim, and giggle nervously when they realize she's teasing. But now, we're more likely to cheer "yes!" and hope for the day it actually comes true. As it is, she often keeps us late, occasionally lying to the irritated lap swimmers waiting to get back into the pool. "Oh, we're just about done here... got a late start because of some swimmers." The Tuesday teacher ends class at 6:50 most weeks, because she has to dash to another teaching gig up in West Palm. Nancie never cheats us of fitness.
"Ladies, you should be in water that's about chest deep. If your chest is up here [she indicates her neck], I don't know what's going on. If your chest is down here [she indicates her solar plexus], then you probably belong in my senior citizen class." She is full of good, solid advice, and keeps us on track, but never threatens or goads us. "Your heart doesn't know if you're on your right foot or your left foot... it doesn't matter if you don't do it exactly right. Just keep moving!"
After we have been in our target heart rate for about 35 minutes, we move to the weights and noodles. We do a few sequences with each, and then begin to cool down. "Leave your weights where they are. Do NOT put them away. This is the hardest thing for you ladies to do... just let go." Nancie instructs us with the wisdom of a buddha. As we come to a close, we do a final stretch: "reach your arms out to both sides, and now wrap them around yourself, and give yourself a hug, just in case no one else does." Nancie understands the importance of self-care.
The other ladies and I love this class the most; I know this because we tell each other in hushed tones in the locker room, and when we gather on Tuesdays and don't want the other teacher to feel bad. One woman drives up from a town about 20 miles away just to take this class; she's hooked. As much as I like the Tuesday teacher, I wish Nancie would teach all the classes. In fact, I think it would be cool if she just hung around all the time.
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