Speeding Up by Slowing Down

Lately, I have felt my life is in fast forward. I finish one thing and unfortunately feel like I need to get on to the next. I learned a very valuable lesson on Saturday morning about slowing down.

Saturday was a work day for me at Bennett Schneider. So that meant I was up early and off to the gym. Since I am taking a break from both running and weight training, I made it a swimming day. Now, I will admit I am not a good swimmer or a fast swimmer, but I have come to enjoy my hour long pool workouts. Meaning...it is so peaceful. I started swimming two years ago for two reasons 1) to have something to do while my piriformis was healing and 2) to be able to compete in the longer distance triathlons.

I did not bother to take swim lessons (I figured I took those in grade school) nor did I think form mattered. To me it was just a matter of getting in the pool and doing the laps. After my swim on Saturday morning, as I was leaving the outside pool heading back into the gym, a gentleman stopped me and asked if he could talk to me about my stroke. Slightly annoyed, I had somewhere to be, I stood and listened to his feedback about how I am not taking advantage of the strongest part of the stroke by waiting so long to bend my arm, blah, blah, blah. Okay, thanks...as I rushed home to get ready for work.

Fast forward, as my life seemingly goes, to Sunday night. Dave and I are sitting at my parents' table celebrating my mom's birthday and I bring up this pool incident. I stood up and demonstrated to Dave (who is an amazing swimmer) and my dad (who completed an Ironman Triathlon) the adjustments this gentleman told me to make. I was fully expecting some off-the-wall comment but was surprised to see my dad and Dave nod in agreement. Yep, that is exactly what you should be doing.

So, to test this new stroke adjustment I went straight to the pool this morning. Though today's pool workout should have been intervals, I decided to do the same workout I did on Saturday, just to compare. I will be damned. I swam the same distance five minutes faster than I did it two days ago. Now I know this is remarkable, because I have been trying for months just to knock a minute off that long swim.

Lesson learned...slow down, listen, you will never know what you will learn and from whom you will learn it. Though I will say that I still wonder how long that stranger in the pool on Saturday morning was watching me swim. Wierd. If I could thank him, I would.