Lessons From Mallorca – Part Three: Being Kind to Yourself
How Three Weeks Out of the Water Taught Me an Unexpected Lesson.
Hey Swimmers
A few weeks ago, I was writing about arguably my best-ever week of swimming.
At 47 years old, I’d just enjoyed my strongest performances at BestFest Mallorca, swimming times and paces that I hadn’t seen for years. I was feeling fit, confident and excited about what might be possible later in the season.
The irony wasn’t lost on many of my swimmers when, just a few days later, I became properly ill.
The final few days of our second Swim Smooth Experience Camp were a struggle. I somehow managed to keep coaching, but by the time I arrived home in Perth, I’d been completely floored by what I suspect was bronchitis or a particularly nasty flu. I wasn’t sleeping well, my chest felt awful, and for the first time in a long while, I had no desire whatsoever to swim.
The result?
Three weeks completely out of the water.
As swimmers, we’re often terrible patients. We worry about losing fitness. We worry about our training streaks. We start calculating how long it will take to get back to where we were.
This time, I tried something different.
I was kind to myself.
Even when I probably could have returned to the water, I gave myself another couple of days. I waited for my chest to clear properly and for my energy levels to return.
My first session back?
Just 800 metres.
No targets. No expectations. No fitness tests.
I simply rolled the arms over and tried out the new FINIS SlipFins (use code SwimSmooth30 for 30% off), which turned out to be great fun and a lovely way of moving through the water again without placing too much aerobic stress on the body.
Since then, I’ve kept things deliberately simple. Some 200-metre repeats with fins, a few Broken Arrow and 6-3-6 drills to restore some fluidity, and a little pull swimming with the FINIS Agility Paddles to reconnect with that feel for the water that seems to disappear surprisingly quickly after time away.
Perhaps the biggest lesson of all has come from something I haven’t done.
I haven’t looked at my fitness chart in the Swim Smooth Guru.
I love that chart. I use it all the time. But right now, I know exactly what it would tell me.
Fitness has fallen.
I don’t need a graph to remind me of that.
Instead, I’m focusing on re-establishing routine and consistency. I’ll look at the chart in another couple of weeks, once I know the line has turned upwards again.
It’s a little psychological trick, perhaps, but I think many swimmers would benefit from doing the same thing.
Sometimes we become slaves to our data.
Strava. Watches. Fitness charts. Training scores.
They’re all useful tools, but they don’t always tell us what we need to hear in the moment.
Sometimes the only goal should be this:
Just keep showing up, as 90yr old Barrie says here:
My longest swim back has been only 2.6 kilometres. I’ve managed a couple of continuous 2km swims and, encouragingly, the pace hasn’t been a million miles away from where I was in Mallorca.
But that’s not the point.
The point is that I haven’t forced it.
I haven’t tried to win back my fitness in a week.
I’ve listened to my body, accepted where I am and trusted that consistency will eventually do its work.
The big target remains the same: UltraSwim Greece 33.3 in September.
There’s plenty of time.
And perhaps that’s the final lesson from Mallorca (well, that and be aware at all times of poor dress sense, embarrassing tight-fighting, muffin-top hugging lycra and that anyone could be taking a photo of you at any time! 😆)
Sometimes the bravest thing a swimmer can do isn’t pushing harder.
It’s giving yourself permission to rest, recover and begin again.
Thanks for following along with this three-part Mallorca series.
Now it’s time to get back to work. On that note, if you want to join me in Crete 🇬🇷 27 Sep to 3 October for our next Swim Smooth Experience, follow the link below
You can also find out what all of our Swim Smooth Coaches have upcoming around the world here - sort by region and reach out to your closest coach):
Thanks for reading.
Your coach, Paul.