One of my little life’s philosophies is: Always give yourself something to look forward to. It can be something as simple as a dinner with friends, watching a movie, getting a massage or manicure, or something as big as a holiday, trip overseas, a big function or event.
These Open Water Swims (OWS) throughout this summer have really given me something to look forward to. Surprisingly, I enjoy competing, and I look forward to race day. Even though it’s challenging, it’s keeping me fit and focused during the week. It’s also made me realise how much I love swimming. Swimming has always been there in the background of my life, but lately it really has occurred to me that’s a huge part of my life, and it’s kind of nice to take it up more seriously. I’ve been really obsessed with swimming lately, in particular long-distance swimming. I really want to push myself to swim longer distances and get up to 5km, 10km swims. I think this is something that I really want to pursue – yes, long distance swimming. It’s kind of my niche sporting activity at the moment. I’ve been obsessed with looking up long distance swims on the Internet and I’ve got some goals in sight with some swims over the next year or so in some exotic destinations. Having something to look forward to is an important motivation. Lately, it feels though my time is counted by the number of swim races I can do.
Tomorrow, I’ve got a 2km open water swim in Shizuoka. I feel ok with the training I did this week to do the distance comfortably. I was more focused on being comfortable with the distance rather than speed. Since last Sunday’s race, I managed to do the following: Monday – 2km swim in about 45min
Tuesday -1km swim
Wednesday -4km jog, 1km walk (total 45min cardio – cross training)
Thursday – rest.
Friday – 2.2 km in about 45min
Saturday – will be rest.
And tomorrow race day.
My motivation at the moment, is my upcoming trip to Egypt. I’ve got three weekends, and two swim races to get through and then I am treating myself to a nice holiday.
Memoirs of Aleisha 