What Training for a 5km Swim Taught Me about Work and Life

Last year, like many others, I took to sports to cope with some of the stresses of the pandemic. It was a good excuse to escape WFH, vent some frustration and get healthy. Having been a keen swimmer in my teenage years, I thought it'd be easiest to get back into action by hitting the pool. Also, the chlorine in the water kills all kinds of bacteria, and maybe Covid-19 as well?

Initially, the plan was to have 1:1 training sessions with a coach to whip me back into shape as quickly as possible. I'm an optimistic person, and one can say, a little idealistic sometimes - so of course, I went for the maximum amount of training I could do given my schedule. 3x a week, 60 mins each time. Let's go.

Lesson #1: You can't go from zero to a hero overnight. Improvements take time.

Quite a number of years have passed since my teenage years, and my physical fitness is nowhere near its peak. That was a crucial bit of reality that failed to register, so there was a gap between my expectations and reality. I kept to the routine for a few weeks, and very quickly, my right shoulder gave way. It hurt to lift my arm up or to rotate it. 'Don't be so lame,' I thought to myself. 'This is just your body adjusting to being active after a long period of laziness.' So I pushed harder, because maybe... if I pushed hard enough, I'll push through the pain. So, guess what, it did not work. In fact, it got worse. I would wince in pain and even had problems dressing myself. I went to see a sports physiotherapist, and he promptly reminded me that I am no longer a teenager and that I need to better listen to my body. In his words, "look, you drive, don't you? If you drive into a traffic jam, do you slow down or do you accelerate?" (Good point.) As a result of the injury, I had to stop training for a month for the shoulder to heal. Any athlete will tell you that taking time off can set one back quite a bit, as you have to then rebuild the stamina. If I had paced myself, I wouldn't have hurt my shoulder and I wouldn't have had to pause. It takes time to build oneself - at work and in life. Some days are good days, and some days can be better. Instead of running yourself repeatedly into the wall and hoping for the best - ease off, recalibrate and try again later. And if in pain, stop.

My fitness started to improve, and it felt great to be swimming laps again. I find swimming very therapeutic because I'm surrounded by water, there is rhythmic movements and my breathing is long and regulated. [Side note: according to marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, also author of the bestselling book Blue Mind, "research has shown that being near, in, on or under water can provide a long list of benefits for our mind and body, including lowering stress and anxiety, increasing an overall sense of well-being and happiness, a lower heart and breathing rate, and safe, better workouts.?being near water boosts creativity, can enhance the quality of conversations and provides a backdrop to important parts of living —?like play, romance and grieving."] But I needed a goal to work towards to keep up the motivation. So, with a friend, we signed up to swim a 5km Charity Swim. He was training for his first triathlon, while I was just hoping not to lose my fitness momentum. A 5km swim is not quite like a 5km run. A 5km swim is basically 100 laps up and down an Olympic-sized 50m pool. The energy spent in a 5km swim is more equivalent to a 25km run (1:5). Olympic swimmers swim 10km a day, but I'm just an ordinary person trying to get through the pandemic with sports.

Lesson #2: Just keep swimming and say YES to stretch assignments

Dory, from the much beloved animated movie Finding Nemo famously said to Nemo, "when life gets you down, you know whatcha gonna do? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming." She was onto something there. When I started to train, I had the stamina, energy and focus to only do about 1.5km in each swim session. Then subsequently, I added a few more laps, then a few more, then a few more. It is a little boring sometimes, so I added training tools to create variety and underwater earphones for music. Over a number of weeks, I managed to build up to 3km in each session. This is still only 60% of what I would have to cover in the Charity Swim, but I was told that marathon and triathlon athletes do not train the full distance but stretch on the actual event. If I could do 3km, surely another 2km on top of that wouldn't be too hard? So leading up to the Charity Swim, I did my 3km each session, trusted myself and prayed that experts' advice carries some truth.

Lesson #3: Swim your own race, lead your own life

Finally the day came for the Charity Swim. I was excited but also very very nervous. Most participants had registered for less than 2km, while there was a very small handful opting for 5km and 10km (including a brave 9yo young man!). With knots in my stomach (and plenty of mental visualizations in the days before), I entered the pool wondering what I had gotten myself into. I had to share a lane with my super fit triathlon friend and another female swimmer who seemed extremely capable. We started our laps and about 20mins into the swim, the other 2 started to pull away from and lapping me. They were pacing each other, which is what long distance athletes do to keep going. A sense of panic and anxiousness began to rise - gosh, am I that slow? Why can't I keep up? Has my training been for naught? Am I going to be able to finish? I had to consciously calm myself down and remind myself to "swim my own race". This wasn't even a competition, and the winning is in the participation (charity) and the completion (self-fulfillment). One hour in, the other female swimmer started to slow down and eventually abandoned her attempt. Sometimes, we find ourselves competing with one another even when there isn't a reward for winning because we are conditioned to do so. At times, it may be healthy to remember to swim our own race, lead our own lives so we don't fall out unexpectedly and prematurely. Our biggest competition is ourselves.

I finished the 5km swim in 2 hours (which was the goal!), and the sense of achievement was very palpable. The biggest achievements were in the effort that went into the attempt, the learnings I had along the way - about my swimming and parallels to work and life, and the physical, mental and emotional benefits. Not sure this sets me on the path of training for a triathlon though, but let's see!