I like swimming, I do. I have always enjoyed my Monday and Wednesday night swim sessions. I would go swimming and do laps. Occasionally I would do some drills or sprints but mostly I would just do laps.

Around October last year, I decided to join the Tuesday night masters' class. They have a slow lane and I'm in it. The first few classes were really great. Then I got sick, had a bit of an injury and was just too scared to go back! I hadn't done any form of swimming for about a month and was concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up. When my first training plan arrived, there was one extra run and one less swim a week - masters' would be my only swim session each week.

So I had to go back. The first sesstion was great. I sat out a couple of 50m sets but felt good, over all. The following week I was sick and since then, I've struggled. My first week back after sickness was really tough. The week after that, I dreaded even going but was glad I did. It wasn't a bad session. Yesterday, I was looking forward to the session but from the minute I got in the water it was tough. Physicall tough, mentally tough.

I was the only person in my lane so coach spent a bit of time with me, looking at my technique. I had mentioned about my kick and the fact that it doesn't seem to give me very much propulsion (my 25m time with and without a pull buoy is roughly the same). The triathletes on Twitter say I don't need to kick much. Coach disagrees (although she would, as she's a swimmer). She had a look at my body position and my kick and said that both are good. She does want me to kick MORE though. Her view is that using my legs more in the pool will make me a better and faster swimmer as well as giving me better over all leg strength for the bike and the run. She seems to think that swimming develops leg muscles that help on the bike but that the converse isn't true. I'm too lazy to research this any further right now. Maybe I will if I get a chance. She did comment that my turns are messy and are costing me time, so I spent some time working on those.

Anyway, back to the toughness. Swimming gets me out of breath. I mean really out of breath. I can do a steady run and not be that out of breath. Mentally, I find the masters' session tough also. Maybe it's because I am (sorry, was, until the new guy started) the slowest in my lane. Maybe it's because there's someone there watching me and timing my laps. Maybe it's just because I'm still not 100% after my recent illness. Maybe it's because it's a Tuesday class - I hate Tuesdays. Maybe it's all of these things. I did consider giving up at one point, masters' that is, not swimming. I though about going back to my own, comfortable little swim sessions where I just do laps. But that's lame and half assed. Nothing about this season is going to be lame or half assed. If I want to get better I need to accept that it's going to tough, physically and mentally. I also need to just HTFU and get on with it.

The plan for now is to work hard at finding my swimming mojo again and to send  these chlorinated demons back from whence they came.

p.s. In just under two months I'm hoping to do the Mid Ulster Duathlon. This is the first multi sport race I did. I feel I have a big score to settle there. Mentally and physically, it was the toughest race I've ever done. It was actually on a par with childbirth (in terms of the mental and physical exhaustion), for me. I know that might sound ridiculous but honestly, it was that hard. I can remember it more vividly than any other race I've done and can remember the exact point where I almost cried and gave up. This year I KNOW that physically, I'm a whole lot stronger. It will be interesting to see just how much I've toughened up mentally!