I'm Joan. I'm 56 years old, I'm a retired school secretary, and four mornings a week I'm in lane three of the Fairmont Community Pool at six o'clock in the morning with the Fairmont Fins Masters Swim Club, doing sets of 100s with a dozen other people between the ages of 24 and 79. Then I go home and have a second breakfast and feel like a million bucks until about two in the afternoon, when I need a nap. That's my whole life now and I highly recommend it.

"Masters" swimming, if you haven't heard the term, just means organized adult swimming: workouts with a coach, and if you want them, meets, with events by age group (five years to a group, starting at 18 or 19 and going right up past 90). You do not have to be a "master" of anything. Most of us are not. The name scared me off for two years. Don't let it scare you.

I swam as a girl at the lake in the summers and that was about it. In 1995, when I was 52, my sister-in-law dragged me to a "try masters for free" morning at the community pool. I could barely make it down and back without hanging on the wall, and the coach, a wonderful woman named Pat who's been coaching for 30 years, said, "Good. Now do it again, slower." I have been doing it again, slower, ever since.

What kept me coming back wasn't fitness, though that came. It was that at 6 a.m. the pool is quiet and the water is flat and the light comes in through the high windows, and for an hour nobody can call you, nobody can ask you anything, and all you have to think about is the black line on the bottom and when to breathe. I've never found anything like it. My husband says it's the only time I stop talking.

Pat writes it on a whiteboard at the end of the pool and we all squint at it. Our pool is 25 yards, so a "100" is four lengths. This is a fairly ordinary Tuesday for our lane (the "middle" lane, between the fast folks and the brand-new folks). It comes to about 2,400 yards in an hour. When I started I did maybe 800 and sat out every other set, and that was fine too.

Gear I actually use: two suits (they rotate, chlorine eats them), goggles (buy the cheap ones, buy three pairs), a silicone cap, a kickboard and pull buoy (the pool has a bin of them), and a plastic water bottle on the deck, because you sweat in the water, you just don't notice.

Freestyle only, because that's what I know best. I am not a coach. These are just the things Pat has said to me so many times they finally sank in.

1. Breathe out in the water. This is the big one. Beginners hold their breath with their face down, then try to breathe out and in during the split second their mouth is out of the water, and they get panicky and exhausted. Blow bubbles the whole time your face is in, steadily, through your nose and mouth. Then when you turn to breathe, all you have to do is breathe in. It took me a month to trust this. It changed everything.

2. Turn your head, don't lift it. Roll your whole body a bit with the stroke and let your head turn with it, so one goggle is still in the water when you breathe. If you lift your head to breathe, your hips sink and you're swimming uphill.

3. Try breathing every three strokes. Alternating sides ("bilateral") keeps your stroke even instead of lopsided. I breathe every three in warm-up and drills and every two on the hard sets, because at 56 I need the air. Pat says that's fine.

4. Look at the bottom, not the wall. Eyes down, so the water line is at about the crown of your head. This is body position. If you look forward, your head comes up, your legs drop, and you drag half a swimming pool behind you.

5. Press your chest down. Think about leaning on your chest like it's on a barrel. Your hips and legs will come up to the surface on their own. Between this and tip 4, I got faster in one week without getting any stronger at all.

6. Kick small. A big bicycle kick uses up all your energy. Keep the kick narrow and from the hips, feet loose, and don't bend the knees much. It's there for balance more than propulsion, at least at my speed.

7. Long strokes, fewer of them. Count your strokes per length. Try to make that number smaller by reaching farther and finishing each pull past your hip. I went from 24 to 18 strokes a length in a year. Fewer strokes, less tired.

• Pick the right lane. Lanes are usually marked slow, medium, fast. Be honest. Nobody thinks less of you in the slow lane; everybody thinks less of you holding up the fast lane.
• Circle swim. When there are three or more in a lane, everyone swims up the right side and back down the right side, counterclockwise, like a road. Two people can "split" the lane, each taking a side, but ask first.
• Fastest leads. Order yourselves by speed at the start of each set, fastest first, five seconds apart. It changes as the workout goes on; be willing to move back.
• Passing: tap the toes. If you catch the person in front of you, tap their foot once. They should pull over at the next wall and let you by. Don't try to pass in the middle of the lane unless it's empty coming the other way. If you get tapped, don't take it personally. I get tapped by a 71-year-old man every Thursday.
• Rest at the wall to the side. Tuck into the corner of the lane so people can still turn in the middle.
• Leave on time. When it's your turn to go, go. If you wait to chat, the whole lane's intervals fall apart.
• Don't hang on the lane line. It sags, it drifts into the next lane, and the lifeguard will sigh at you.
• Shower before you get in. Yes, even at 6 a.m. Especially at 6 a.m.

My third meet ever! The Fall Splash is a small, friendly, one-day short-course (25-yard) meet held at the county aquatic center, with about 90 swimmers from five clubs. Here's how I did in the women's 55-59 age group. All times are hand-timed by nice volunteers with stopwatches. I am pleased with every one of these, and particularly pleased that I didn't false start, which I did in June.

Next up: the Fins are hosting our own little Turkey Trot swim meet the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and I'm going to try the 100 backstroke if I can learn to count my strokes into the wall by then.

I'm not a good swimmer. Can I do this? If you can swim one length of the pool, in any fashion, most masters clubs will take you and put you in the new lane. I could barely do that. Call the pool and ask if there's a masters group; a lot of YMCAs and community pools have one.

Do I have to go to meets? No! Maybe a third of our club ever competes. The rest come for the workout and the coffee afterward.

How much does it cost? Our club charges $30 a month for coached workouts, plus whatever the pool charges for a membership, plus a small yearly registration with the national masters organization if you want to swim in meets. Cheaper than the gym I never went to.

What about my hair? Silicone cap, conditioner right after, and make peace with it. My hairdresser has.

Isn't 6 a.m. awful? For about eleven minutes. Then you're in the water and it's the best place on earth. I'll take the nap.