Aquatic Talk

Some funny things have been happening lately:

1) I went to the Y the other day to swim and asked the front desk peeps when the Y closed. "At 7:00," they said. It was then almost 6:00. "Okay," I replied," I'll swim fast." "You've got a whole hour," they said, like this was a long time to swim, which I found funny. My, how one's perspective changes.

2) Tonight, went to OWS and because of recent rains, the lake was high. And choppy. Swim coach didn't think it was a good idea for him to take his kayak out, it was that choppy. We swam in that choppy water. I swam in the choppy water. And I LOVED IT. My, how a little education on how to work with the waves instead of trying to work against them makes the swim a happy place! I can't believe I actually liked swimming in the waves, but I really, really, really did. And I swam straight and didn't drink in half the lake. Of course, I was last, but I'm not worried about that right now...it's all about survival and comfort, baby, and after so long of having no comfort while swimming, this is pretty fine.

3) Yesterday, my throat/voice/speech/breathing therapist taught me how to breathe. WTF?! This turns out to be crucial in sports, as I had intuited from those times like last week, when I feel I cannot. She tried to get me to see the image of an umbrella re: my diaphragm, but I find this logistically too distracting. Instead, I'm calling it bullfrog breathing. She's teaching me to accelerate proper breaths with increased work...the idea being that you can get as much air while you're exerting as while you're at rest. Totally revolutionary to me! If I can master that, I'll soon be kicking my own ass.

4) Am reading a book on mental training for triathletes. Authors say there are internal focusers and external focusers...I am definitely the latter...which means I freak myself out when I'm too internally focused...much better to think..."hey, I'm swimming in a choppy lake and as I rotate to breathe, I can see the half moon rising over the lake" than "hey, I'm swimming in a choppy lake and running into weeds and people kill weeds and weeds kill people and this is gonna kill me..." ... I mean, "hey, look at the gorgeous moon..." Definitely gotta work with this...