The Little Things
June 16, 2012

I have almost always loved swimming. I saw almost because there was a time at age 5 or 6 where I completely freaked out and had to practice “blowing bubbles” in a dish pan on the side of my cousin’s pool. My swim teacher also had to talk to me about how her water wasn’t special, and if I could swim in her pool then I could swim anywhere. Luckily that was a very short lived fear, and I was quickly diving off the diving board into 12 foot water. I took swim lessons, and then did lifeguard training at age 15. I lifeguarded throughout high school and part of college, and really loved getting to work at a pool! While I love running, I am in no way a natural runner. My body isn’t built to be a great runner, and I definitely have to work hard at it. When it comes to swimming though, I feel much more at home. In high school, I didn’t really think twice about jumping into a pool and swimming a mile. In fact, I worked at a camp for many summers, and I used to do a mile swim with friends there. It felt easy to me.

Then I hit a time where I no longer had access to a pool, and I stopped swimming. Except for playing in pools and oceans, I haven’t actually swam a lap in 7 years. Long gone are the days of jumping into the pool and swimming a mile. I now have access to a pool again, so this morning I headed out and bought the first one piece I’ve owned in too many years to count. This afternoon, I did a quick 25-30 minute lifting work out, and then jumped into the pool to see “how far I could go before getting tired.”

Well, I was so pleased and surprised to see how naturally I fell back into swimming. It felt like I had hardly taken any time off at all. Sure, it wasn’t quite as easy as it used to be, but it wasn’t particularly difficult either. I ended up swimming .75 of a mile before quitting due to time. I could’ve easily gone more then a mile. I WAS BEYOND THRILLED! I’m so happy that despite taking 7 years off, I was able to jump in and fall back into my natural stride swim stroke.

I’m excited to add swimming back into my work out routine, and look forward to getting back to the point that I used to be!

Now it’s your turn to share! What exercise or sport comes the most naturally to you? Do you enjoy swimming? 

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One response to “Time To Sink or Swim”

  1. ultraswimfast says:
    September 25, 2012 at 9:03 am

    Love swimming! Glad it was a smooth adjustment for you to get back in the water.