what I don't miss

With more sunshine, better weather (spring is coming SOON!) and more hours of daylight after work, things have been looking up. You know, it's been about 4 months since I've been in a swimming pool. Remember my new rules of training? I don't even feel like swimming. I don't want to deal with the chlorine smell, with the standing by the edge of the pool in your swimsuit, anticipating the cold water... Well, I also don't have a YMCA membership any more. I could swim Weds mornings with Mac's crew, or Saturday mornings with the Tri-Dawgs...but...I don't really feel like it. So I haven't.

Is it that weird that something I used to do practically every day for so many years (and some days TWICE per day), I just don't any more? And I don't miss it? Sometimes you hear about swimmer Olympians who don't swim for YEARS after they retire. Like 20 years or something. Not even for fun.

I was thinking of fun things me and the Sherpa should do for a summer adventure, and one of them was "go to a water park." You know what's hilarious? I haven't been to a water park since our middle school (7th grade?) field trip to Raging Waters, back when I was 12 or 13. And even when we went, I never went on the rides with the giant water slides that landed you into water 7+ feet deep.

Because I didn't know how to swim. I was terrified of drowning.

I haven't been to a water park since learning to finally swim (around age 18). I remember even doing my first "triathlon camp" with Team Sheeper when I was 18 years old, that first summer of triathlons...we were at the really nice deep pool and the coach had us doing these drills in the deep end. I had to be next to a wall. I couldn't do the drills very well because I kept thinking I was going to sink and drown. And of course since I was sort of panicked (but trying desperately not to show it) and not relaxed, I did the drills horribly.

I still think it's totally strange how that same girl ended up becoming a pro triathlete...specializing in the Ironman. Where 2.4-mile swims became standard fare. In both racing and everyday training. Which means I'm still flabbergasted that random internet trolls gave me so much sh*t for being a terrible swimmer. It's all relative, I suppose. I was a terrible swimmer for a pro.

But I was an absolutely terrific super duper awesome swimmer for me. For anyone in my family, really. My brother and sister surely can't swim, and I don't think most of my 20+ cousins can either.

That said, I still am lacking in desire to want to swim these days. But I am looking forward to going on giant water slides this summer.