No expectations

Returning to the pool

This morning I went for my third swim of the calendar year. Prior to that, it had been 23 weeks since my last swim. In 2020, I did a grand total of 15 swims. That’s quite a drop off from the previous year when I did almost 80 swims. COVID restrictions and lack of motivation had a lot to do with this.

The first few times back though, we don’t want to remember all that. We expect just to pick up where we left off. That’s an unreasonable expectation for most folks, who, like me, didn’t get into swimming adulthood. Folks like us don’t just pick up where we left off with swimming.

Fortunately I’ve been through layoffs like this enough to have lowered my expectations to near zero on my return to the pool this month. In the past, I’ve had a tendency to press too hard expecting the results to come with a lot of effort and energy expired. It doesn’t work like that with swimming which is so technique-driven.

Lucky for me, both my fitness is low and my technique is rusty so I truly have no expectations at the moment other than to do my best and (try) to have fun. After three pleasant swims back, so far so good.