On Doing Flip Turns

Some of you know that 6 weeks ago I joined a masters swim team. At first the biggest hurdle was getting up at quarter to five each morning, then came the very sore muscles (OK, I still have some of that going on), but today presented the biggest challenge so far....flip turns!!! The first attempt resulted in coughing & sneezing, plus my sinuses becoming full of pool water. Blow out through your nose everyone says. No such luck. I tried, came up spluttering. Finally I got to the point where I could flip sideways (that will sure do me a lot of good in a race). But, by the time practice ended, I could flip fairly straight and usually be close enough to the wall to push off, albiet, not very efficiently. Five hours later I'm still smelling chlorine & my head feels like it's full of cotton. But I figure, if my 7 and 10yo's can do these things, I should be able to as well. Now to try and tackle that butterfly :O