Swimming.

I have always been a swimmer, as far back as I can remember I have always swam. I got into swimming because my big sister started on the swim team and I wanted to as well. My parents weren't swimmers but they did enjoy the water. Kim and I spent most of our years swimming (and I was pretty good) but over the past 11 years, I started to lose touch with swimming, it was more something I did just to train for triathlon not because I loved it. I didn't focus on the swim because I wanted to bike and run and my swim compared to other triathletes was pretty good.

It also had a lot to do with swimming alone, it was pretty hard to motivate myself to swim when swimming beside a lady doing sidestroke or head up breaststroke. Through the years I have had a few people that I have been able to swim with occasionally and we would get in some good quality workouts, and even a few times I had Kim coach me when I joined her team for a few swims, but for the most part I would swim on my own and it was easier to do long easy mileage than to push myself to go hard.
Lately I have taken to the water on a regular basis and am realizing how much that I missed it. Maybe it is being around swimmers all the time, with the club team and master swimmers but I find myself wanting to go for a swim over going for a run. It is such a part of me and I am happy to be feeling like a swimmer again.
SV and I have been swimming together and it is nice to have someone who can challenge me in the water, we have been doing some quality sets that I would never have done on my own before and I am starting to feel strong in the pool. I have been swimming more regularly than I did all summer while training for Ultraman, which I find a little entertaining, who knows what my swim time could have been if I actually would have done some swim training, but hey life happens.
It is just nice to be motivated to swim again and to have that love back for the water and I notice as my love for the water comes back that I am able to help my athletes figure out the parts of their strokes that are holding them back, all in all it is a win win situation.
I am enjoying the peaceful sound of being in the water, smelling of chlorine, the dry skin, diving into a cold pool and the insane hunger that comes after a hard swim workout. It's been a long road but it is nice to be back "home" with my oldest friend.