Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time I was a good swimmer.  Better than average.  In my head, I'm still good.  In reality, I'm not.  In reality, I haven't been a "swimmer" in years.  I checked my Daily Mile logs and this year I have swam 5 times for a total of 5 miles.  Last year, while I was training for a half ironman, I swam 15 times for a total of 18 miles.

It's hard to be good at anything when you don't do it often.  In my defense (sort of), swimming is a small part of a triathlon.  You can be a super fast swimmer and that still doesn't get you a lot of time over slower swimmers.  I know I can swim any distance I need to, so I end up ignoring the swimming portion of my plan.  It's the thing that goes if I need a day off, or I use swim days to make up other workouts I missed.

All this leads me to last Monday.  My first open water swim since the Half Full in October.  It was a mile swim in Lake Serene.  I met up with some people from a local shop, and Erika, a Tough Chik teammate.  The water was cold.  In the low 60's.   It took my breathe away when I got in.  I was the only one in a sleeveless wetsuit.  I didn't think much of it until I felt the energy being sucked out of my arms.  It was hard to get them around.  I finally got in a rhythm.  I picked up my head to look around and I was alone.  I saw splashing in the distance.  This was a new experience for me.  I am  was usually the one in the front.    But, what are you going to do?  I swam on.  As I reached the other side of the lake, the other swimmers were heading back.

I headed back across the lake, wondering what happened to my fast.  Thinking it might be time to hit up a masters group.  I make it to the other side and there is talk about doing another lap (that's another mile for those keeping score).  Two people were all in.  The other 3 of us were not so sure.  We agreed to do go half way out and back.  We head out and I quickly lost sight the other's feet.   In true overachieving, triathlete fashion, no one stopped half way.  I thought about it.  By this time I was freezing, but who wants to be the only one to NOT go the whole way?  Not me.  So, I kept going.

It took me close to an hour to swim 2 miles.  I know this is not horrible.  I know there are not a ton of people who would even swim 2 miles.  For me, this was an eye opener.  Once upon a time I was a good swimmer.  If I would like to be that again, I need to get my butt in the pool (or even better, a lake).

This just made me laugh.

Moral of my story...don't rest on what you used to be.