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Life Lessons From the Swimming Pool
I stopped going to Masters Swimming for a month due to back-to-back injuries. I was starting to doubt I’d ever go back. It seemed like I had broken the swimming habit the way you break a horse.
I didn’t feel like the swimmer. The extended time off had tamed the wild Mustang right out of me and I wasn’t an athlete anymore.
I did get back into the pool once a couple of weeks ago — in between injuries — but then was immediately knocked out again with a back/neck/shoulder injury.
Not swimming was a long month. I exercise to regulate my mental health. Without it, I am restless, tired, and wandering.
My husband suggested I start walking, which was oddly difficult for me. I’d been walking all my life. It should have been easier than riding a bike, but it wasn’t. I was out of practice on land. I had been suspended in water.
During the beginning of COVID, when we were completely locked up, I walked 10 miles a day — in a mask. Once August came around, and I started getting light-headed from heat exhaustion, I took the mask off and avoided people — but I still walked endlessly.
After I started swimming in the lake and the pool every day, I quit walking. Not intentionally, but completely. I no…
