Like a Fish out of Water ...

I felt like I couldn't breathe, move, swim. Yet this is how I was feeling in the water. Sure, I've had the occasional "bad" swim before, but I don't think I've ever had such a long dry spell (so to speak). The only way I can describe it is that I felt like I just couldn't make my body work in the water; my mind and my body felt completely disconnected. What started as a weird feeling in the water eventually grew to not being able to complete half a workout. So, I did the only thing I could think of - I talked to someone smarter than me.

This all started a couple of weeks ago after a challenging test set. By the end of it I had done 3000 m in just under an hour with my heart rate average in the 170s the whole time. Meyrick kept track of my times and heart rate and I'm so glad I have that information. With it I concluded (well, I guessed first and then someone smarter than me agreed) that I probably haven't been varying the intensity of my workouts enough. And it isn't because I wasn't told to vary them, I just wasn't giving myself a break (not on purpose!)

OK - I (we) figured out what I did wrong, but how to fix it? Obviously swimming more wasn't going to help so, I got out of the pool and hung up my goggles. At first, I thought 3 days would do it, but then I decided not to put a "deadline" on my return to the water. I decided that when the time was right, I would know. 3 days passed, 4 days, 6 days then today, day 7, I headed for the pool. What a difference! It felt effortless, I could breathe and most importantly I could swim.

It was a tough lesson; straying from my plan felt completely wrong and a couple of days ago I wasn't sure that I would ever get "it" back. In the past I may have tried to push through it, or felt guilty about taking a break. But, I've learned from my mistake and I'm sure it will happen again but now I know I can trust myself to get through it.