I Love Swimming 🏊

I finally went swimming today! I have been dying to go for a swim since I came back and the weather here is always perfect swimming weather. ☀️

Swimming and running is quite different. When swimming, even if you are out of breath and you slow down, you still have to keep moving and it really tires you out. And for me, when I am at the deep end of the pool, I am always swamped with the terror of “what if I can’t reach the end!?” This thought makes my heart rate go even faster and I try to force myself to calm down and keep pushing on with the strokes.

As I had been running roughly 5km almost everyday, I thought my stamina would be enough for me to swim at least 1 lap. Turns out a different type of endurance is needed. When I am swimming freestyle, it feels more like striding than a normal run. I use more muscle strength, my heart rate is higher and so is my breathing rate. In this case, I actually need more speed and muscle endurance - to be able to sustain high heart rate and muscle strength for a longer time period.

It was really fun and I hope to swim more before I go back to cold gloomy England.