Meditation Through Flotation

Over the course of a year, swimming has become my favourite part of triathlons. On race day, the swim is always action packed! When the gun goes off, all hell breaks loose and the adrenaline seems to carry me through the entire swim...it's as if I'm with a bunch of people all trying to swim away from a predator.

When I train for the swim, I tend to go into a trance-like state as I focus on gliding through the water as gracefully as I possibly can. It may just be the yerba mate tea and Vega sport that I drink before hand, but man oh man-my mind is 100% focused on the stroke at hand for 80% of the workout. Near the end of my swims, the yerba mate seems to wear off and my mind begins to wonder and my body begins to crave the hot tub.

I find it's easier to swim for 30 straight minutes than to swim 10 minutes at a time with 1 or 2 minutes in between for a drink and stretch break because after the first break I find myself thinking "I have to do that same thing 2 more times?!" compared to swimming for 30 straight minutes and thinking, "OK I don't know how long I've been swimming for but it definitively has not been 30 minutes yet so I'll keep swimming until I begin to feel sore in the pectorals and then check my watch!" What always keeps me motivated is my vision of one day swimming in Kona with the top athletes in the triathlon world...

I really do love swimming, but I've never had lessons. I have however watched a ton of videos on how to swim properly and even recorded myself swimming just so I can see where I can improve. I do plan on getting a swim or triathlon coach but right now I unfortunately cannot afford one...