After leaving the team, I tried swimming again

Four months, almost to the date, after I hung up my goggles I decided to jump back in the pool.

To provide context for why I did this, I recently went to the doctor and they were amazed with how low my heart rate was. They then remarked on how I must be an athlete. Personally I was shocked, there was absolutely no way I was still “in-shape” or was even close to deserving of the label of “athletic.”

For clarification purposes, I do workout… just in a different way. I like to think my workouts are cutting edge, in other words, I have convinced myself I’m the master of working out without even breaking a sweat.

From my glory days

For example, just the other day I had a presentation in front of EY and my heart rate was easily elevated for about 30 minutes. Opposed to trying to lower it, I decided to embrace it and as a result, got a great aerobic workout in during the middle of class!

I also get in high quality workouts at work. Lucky for me, my desk is directly across from the cardio and weightlifting room. After watching people workout for three hours, multiple times a week, I have become a firm believer in transitive calorie burning. Often times I leave the gym just exhausted from all the squats and running I watched that day.

Anyways, back to the actual reason I’m writing this, I jumped in the water to see if I’ve still ‘got it’.

Spark Notes version: I don’t still have it.

Anyone who swims knows that being out of the water, even if it’s just for a couple of days, inhibits your swimming abilities. Even if you’re in tip top shape on land (Like me, as evidenced by the above information), you can be extremely slow in the water because you don’t have the feel for it that is so imperative.

To put this next part in perspective, I haven’t been in a pool for four months, heck I haven’t even been in a bathtub, so it’s safe to say that I had completely lost my feel for that chlorinated H20.

First off, I couldn’t even find a cap, so I braided my hair and decided to just go for it – automatically demoting me to a novice swimmer.

Then I decided to time myself in order to really get a gage of where I was at. During my glory days, my best time in the 200 free was a 1:49, on this day I clocked in at a truly blazing time of 2:48…. And I’ve got to admit, this pace only diminished as the workout continued.

About 30 minutes later, I had to get out due to complete exhaustion. I’m sure all my swimmer friends think that is pathetic since I used to swim along side them for roughly 20 hours a week, but if there’s one lesson I learned from this experience, its that muscle atrophy is no joke.

Overall, I had an absolute blast getting back into the water.

Growing up, I remember going to my summer club and watching people play around in the water. I continuously wondered what it was like to have fun in a pool and just enjoy the moment without a running clock. Lucky for me, between thinking about how pathetic of a time of 2:48 is or wondering if my breaststroke kick was even still legal, I was finally able to understand how those kids played in the water all of those years.

While it was a blast, I think I had enough chlorine for another four months. And I’m still trying to get the knots out of my hair from going without a cap.