April 1, 2013

Swim Session with Cardiff Tri

On Sunday I swam with the Cardiff Triathletes.  They do 3 swim sessions a week, and I make it about once a month.  Each session is different, some focus on speed, others on endurance, but I mostly focus on two things - moving forward and not drowning.
(This is me swimming in Morocco.  Not sure what stroke I can do in 2 inches water)
I used to swim a fair amount - its one of the perks of growing up in California. I was on swim team as a kid and a lifeguard in college.  Swimming is something I generally enjoy and was one of the things I looked forward to in triathlon...

... Until the fateful thursday.  It was about two weeks back, I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was not swimming well. I was gasping and getting "dropped" and everyone was swimming fast and I was swimming slow.  I was trying to go faster and I was getting side cramps and my stomach was hurting and suddenly...

... I did not feel good.  I was half way down the pool and had visions of one fateful day on swim team  when we were all doing laps, and we saw one of the boys stop swimming, and we saw him look around, and then he opened his mouth and spewed chunks of cheerios and milk all over the pool.  I remember watching those cheerios sink and the milk float and the boy cry and thinking... gross.

So with that vision, I realized I was going to be that boy in a second.  And i jumped out of the pool, beelined for the girls toilets, and I'll spare you the details but it was... gross.
(Cat is not me, but my story was gross and cat is funny)
After that I decided never to go swimming again, but at parkrun I met one of the triathletes and as we chatted he encouraged me not to give up.  With those words of encouragement I hit the pool again on Sunday and I did exactly what I hoped to do - swim for an hour and not give up.  I was in the slowest lane and only did 1.25 miles, but I'm not afraid to go back anymore and I'm even looking forward to the next session.


It just goes to show that if you don't give up on things you're moderately bad at, then you'll never stay moderately bad at them!


I'm rubbish at inspiration.  Here's a photo instead:

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