Inspiration for the Next Half-Century

A Canadian swimmer recently set two World Records in his Masters Swimming Age Group: 100-104.

104-year old Masters Swimmer Jaring Timmerman
(from WPTV.com)

Yes, you read that correctly. At the ripe young age of 104, Jaring Timmerman now holds 4 records for his age group and because Mr. Timmerman turns 105 next month, they have to add a NEW age group: 105-109 to the records.

As if that's not amazing enough, Mr. Timmerman didn't even begin competitive swimming until the age of 79!

When I was an invincible 20- and 30-something competing in masters swimming, we used to joke about outliving the competition as the easiest way to make it to the record books. Mr. T is doing just that.

Go here to see a video interview with this amazing man, who shows us all it's never too late to try something new.

When asked why he swims at his age, Mr. Timmerman said, "It's a challenge...So that's why I swim, the challenge."

If that doesn't make you want to go out and try something new, I don't know what will! If you need some more motivation to get in the pool, forget runners' high, Swimmers' Bliss is even better!

JAWS, or Handling the Fear in Open-water Swimming

I love open-water swimming. Lakes, rivers, the ocean, it's both exhilarating and calming. I'd be lying if I said it's not a little bit frightening, too. While I don't do as much open-water swimming as I used to, when I was swimming Brewers Bay, from the UVI dock to Black Point and back regularly, a swim didn't pass where I didn't start humming Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum-da-dum-da-dum somewhere out in the middle of the bay.

Thanks Jaws.

Original movie poster from Jaws (1975)

Here's a post from "The Swimming Blog" that appeared in The Guardian not too long ago that had me giggling and nodding my head in commiseration with the author, Jenny Landrith.
Open-water Swimming: How do you handle the fear?

Now, during my once a year open-water swim on the Cooper River, I tend to "get in the zone" or what I've referred to in a previous blog post as "swimmer's bliss" by counting strokes. I play games to make the 2.4 miles pass faster: "No peaking until I've swum 100 strokes." Or, "Count how many strokes to the next buoy" then compare that to the number of strokes to the one after that. Those distractions can keep me occupied for most of the swim, but still, at some point it happens.

Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum-da-dum-da-dum

I'm not certain if it's fear or habit anymore. Maybe it's even become my way to deal with fear: do something silly like sing the Jaws theme.

How do you deal with your fear of the unknown?

2013 Lowcountry Splash--Completed!

I completed my third Lowcountry Splash on Saturday, June 1. Although I didn't have my swim-buddy Tom with me, I still managed to enjoy the event and survive. Not like open-water swims are conducive to socializing anyway...except for the outstanding party that the Splash organizers host at the end of the event...but more on that later!

Click HERE to find out more about the Splash!

Of the three Splashes I've participated in, this was by far my favorite. The conditions were fabulous---no wind-induced chop, no harbor waves, no feeling like I was being tossed around in a washing machine once I passed under the bridge. We started at 7:30-ish, so almost slack tide. A little more push from an outgoing tide and the river current would have been okay, but the smooth conditions more than made up for that.

What a GREAT morning for a swim! (photo courtesy of Lowcountry Splash)

This year, the Splash included a 5-mile swim, along with the usual 2.4 miler. I did the latter, shorter swim, but 107 brave souls headed out from Daniel Island 30 minutes before our start for that race. To all of them, CONGRATULATIONS! A pretty spectacular feat. And, since many of the faster women who would have been competing in my age group swam that instead, THANK YOU! Because of that, I finished 5th in my age group (out of 15).

In the 2.4 mile race, I finished 186 out of 389 with a time of 52:03. Not my fastest, but because of changing current and tide conditions, it's impossible to compare times from one year to the next.  My relative ranking, right around the middle of the pack, has stayed consistent from year-to-year, right around 47-50%. My first year (2010, where I'm listed in the results as Lynn Hinkley) I had a 58:08 and finished 197/399, and in my second year (2011), I swam it in 48:25 (229/490). You can see from the times what a big difference conditions can make. The waves were horrendous in 2011--everyone felt like they'd been beat up--but times were fast thanks to a big push on the fast-moving outgoing tide.

While we didn't get much push from the current this year, it was still there, most notably at the start when we were trying to stay behind the start buoys and had to continuously swim back upstream. This years start struck me as all-sorts-of-different from previous years. I don't remember the starting area being so shallow. Lots of people walked through the mucky bottom to get there. A little too oozy for me and Lindsay Shuler, who I started with (and who beat me by 2 minutes in her first Splash swim--congratulations, Lindsay!) We moved out into deeper water. The start was single-wave, all 389 swimmers at once, rather than in 2-waves, based on estimated finish time, like they'd done in previous years. I think this was because of the 100 5-mile swimmers coming toward us. Whatever the reason, the start was more chaotic than I remember! It took a lot longer for the crowd to spread out than I recall from past swims, but maybe I always feel that way and block the horror of the mass-swim-starts from my mind!

And we're off! (photo from the Lowcountry Splash Facebook page)

Once I did have a bit of elbow (and leg) room, the swim was great--78 degree, smooth water, a sunny, mild day, and doing my favorite activity, swimming. What's not to love?

At the end of the race, the Splash organizers put on a great party, complete with music by Eddie Bush, lots of good food, beer (yes, breakfast beer at the 9:00-ish post-race party! Hurray!), dancing, and games. A good time was most definitely had by all!

The finish line at Patriot's Point Marina. (photo from the
Lowcountry Splash Facebook page.)

The Splash supports some great causes (The Logan Rutledge Children's Foundation and the Charleston County LAPS program, a learn-to-swim program for area schools) so it's  not only fun, but helps out a lot of people, too! I hope you'll all think about joining me in next year's swim--who knows, maybe I'll even try the 5-mile swim for my entrance into the 50-54 age group since I'll be aging up for next year's event!

For Splash results, and more info on the annual Lowcountry Splash, click here.

To see pictures from the Splash on Facebook (and to "like" their page), go here.

See you all in the pool!

2013 Lowcountry Splash!

Looking for a good excuse to visit Charleston in late spring/early summer? Sign up now for the Annual Lowcountry Splash--a 2.4-mile open water swim in the Cooper River and Charleston Harbor on Saturday, June 1, 2013! And for those who need a bit more of a challenge, this year the Splash is offering a 5-mile swim option, too.

Me, stopping near the Mt. Pleasant Pier for a photo op during the 2011 Splash!
(photo courtesy of Matt Drobnik)

For me, the Splash is a great way to stay motivated to swim throughout the cold, wet, and dreary winter months. I go to www.swimplan.com to get a new workout three times each week from January through May (at least, 3X/week is always my starting plan...we'll see if I keep that up this year!) I have a really short attention span so can't just get in and swim laps--I need varied workouts with different strokes, equipment, and drills or I get bored. Swimplan provides that for me, although I do adapt intervals and some sets depending on whether I'm swimming in the 25yd pool at WL Stephens or the 50m pool at MLK. I start with workouts in the 20000-2500 yd range in January and build to 4000 yards by May. The swim itself is 2.4 miles (about 4400  yards) but with the tide, so swims more like about 3000 yards.

One of my best-est friends, brother-in-law Tom, will be coming to Charleston at the end of May for us to compete in our 3rd Splash event. It's always a fun swim (and since it's with the tide, it's a relatively easy swim too, other than the occasional wave-to-the-face once we get under the bridge and into the harbor!) If you need further enticement to sign up, there's a great party with music, food, massages, and beer afterwards, too.

Me and Tom, ready to Splash! 2011 Lowcountry Splash.
(photo courtesy of Matt Drobnik)

Proceeds from the Splash benefit the Logan Rutledge Children's Foundation, a local not for profit organization promoting the health and welfare of children in the Lowcountry. The foundation was established in May of 2002 in memory of Logan Jennings Rutledge (7/30/01-08/26/01). Since its beginning the foundation has supported the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Medical University of South Carolina and has made numerous contributions to assist individual children in need in the Lowcountry. A new learn-to-swim initiative in Charleston, the Lowcountry Aquatics Program Swimming (LAPS)  will be one of the Splash's beneficiaries this year, as well. This new program provides lifelong aquatics opportunities for Lowcountry residents--with a special emphasis on teaching children in underprivileged Lowcountry areas to swim, thus reducing the incidence of accidental drownings.

Register now, and I'll see you at the Splash!

WHAT MICHAEL PHELPS CAN TEACH US ABOUT WRITING SUCCESS

Today's Business-2-Community website has an article on strategies to reach one's goals: Achieving Goals: Five Important Lessons from Michael Phelps. We all know Phelps is the world's greatest swimmer and arguably the world's greatest athlete. What this article focuses on is how he got there, and how we can all follow his example to plan out a strategy for achieving our own goals, whether they're in the pool, at work, or at the keyboard writing a novel, poem, essay, or other masterpiece.

 

Michael Phelps with his 2012 Olympic Gold Medals

The five lessons are:

 

1. Prepare for Success

2. Do Not Be Afraid to Announce Your Goals Publically
3. Work With Your Strengths and Weaknesses, Accentuating the Positives
4. Assemble a Team To Support You in Pursuing Your Goals
5. Never Give Up

Phelps began implementing these lessons as soon as he hit the pool at age 7. He prepared for his eventual success by putting in long, hard hours in the pool and in the gym. He didn't look for short cuts and he didn't settle for just being the best in his club, state, region, or in the U.S. He didn't settle for less than his goal and he put in all the years of work that entails. He announced his intentions publicly, setting himself up for spectacular failures and ridicule if he didn't continue to prepare and work to improve his weaknesses and enhance his strengths. Forget peer pressure. By announcing his intentions to "three-peat" or win the most golds in a single Olympics, or any of his other seemingly brash announcements, Phelps put the pressure on himself to not end up looking foolish. What great motivation that is!

 

Phelps also made sure he had a support team that was able to bring out the best in him, overcome the worst, and help him achieve his goals. That didn't mean surrounding himself with sycophants and cheerleaders. He stayed with the coach that pushed him, even when they butted heads, because he knew he needed discipline, not back patting. His friend and teammate Ryan Lochte was a threat to his standing and to his public announcements of his intentions. He used that competition to fuel his drive. And he had his mother's love, support, encouragement,. I'm sure some mornings, that included nagging him to get out of bed,  making sure he didn't give up because he was tired, sore, or just not feeling motivated that day, and in other ways, doing things that mothers do, even when we find them unpleasant (thanks, moms!) Most of all, no matter the obstacles, no matter the whispered wonderings if he still had "it" in him, Michael Phelps never quit, never gave up until he achieved all of his swimming goals.

As writers, we can apply these lessons, and emulate the role model Phelps provides, in our own endeavors.

Prepare for success. We have to work on our craft always. We can and should continue to improve, learn more, try new things, all with our eye on the ultimate prize of publishing works we're proud of, not just publishing for the sake of publishing. That means we have to plan out a multi-year, multi-decade strategy. We have to expect and learn from failure, from rejection. Great swimmers are made through years of practice and from losing a few races along the way. So are great writers. Very few of us can sit down at the computer and pump out a complete, finished, well-written novel on our first try. Be prepared to shove the first two or three attempts in a drawer, never to see the light of day again (unless of course it's to remind ourselves, molnths and years later, how far we've come!)

Don't be afraid to announce our goals publicly. Those first tenuous steps at sharing our work or our ambition to become a writer with other people are difficult. Will our friends and family mock us? Will they think we're crazy? How will we respond when someone asks, "What have you written?" and we have nothing but dozens of unpublished stories on our hard drives? But announcing our goals publicly, boldly stating, "I want to be a writer, poet, novelist," is the first step in turning our dream into a reality. "I want to write a novel, so first I have to practice, hone my skills, and make the time to write." Only then can we firmly plot out our next steps and move forward with our plan. Without this public announcement, we will have a difficult time building the support team needed and committing to the work and the sacrifices ahead as we pursue our dreams.

Work with our strengths and weaknesses, accentuating the positives. Knowing our weaknesses as writers helps us to overcome those. The critical point in this statement, however, is "accentuate the positives." Maybe it's something in the writer's psyche, but we do seem to focus on our weaknesses, wallow in them, fret over them, and often, let them silence us. We have to learn to see those weaknesses and address them, but then see through them to our strengths, and embrace and be emboldened by those. Vivid imagination? Use it. Traumatic childhood? Use it. Love affair with words? Embrace it. Accentuating the positives can get us through those rough days when we wonder why we're sitting at the computer, staring at an empty screen, or deleting pages and pages of sub-par work from the day before. We don't do those things because we can't write, we do those things because we know we can write better.

Assemble a team to support you in pursuing your goals. Using Phelps, or any outstanding athlete as an example, consider who has to be on your team. Yes, it's important to have a few cheerleaders around to help when morale sinks, but it's even more important to have a demanding coach who will bring out the best in us and give us an honest assessment of what we need to work on. Find a writing coach or partner in a local or online writing group, or take some classes. Find an editor who is both brutally honest and encouraging, as needed. Depending on your goals, your team might include an agent, a publisher, or magazine editors. And don't forget to include teammates--others who are going through what you are, who understand what it means to lock yourself in your room and give free rein to the voices in your head.  The Internet Writing Workshop is a great place to find all of these and start building a support team.

Finally, never give up. Critiquers will rip our work apart. Rejections will come. Each time we write something, we'll think we're at the top of our game. Until we read it a few weeks or months later. As I learned working in sales, a goal isn't a place to stop, it's a place to start. Once we've achieved our initial goal, it's time to up the ante. Try harder, shoot for more. If we get rejections, we'll improve what we wrote. If we get published, we'll write something even better next time. We'll never give up.

Sadly, we won't be able to follow Phelps's 12,000 calorie/day diet as we pursue our sedentary sport of writing, but at least we can follow his lessons for swimming success to achieve our own writing goals.

Write on!
 

 

Olympic Reading

I have the best intentions of posting weekly on this blog, but sometimes the rest of life interferes with those plans. The past 10 days have been full of those. I'd really wanted to have blow-by-blow coverage of Olympic swimming, with Phelps's incredible 20-medals' performance. But it took him a while to find his groove. I had mixed feelings about Lochte beating him (and so decisively) in the 400 IM. Hurray Ryan! But how sad for Michael. Were we going to watch a total implosion over the next 10 days? How could that be? That worried and demotivated me. I wasn't sure what to write. So I didn't write anything. 

Instead, watching the amazing Olympic swimmers inspired me to go back and read some of my favorite swimming books of all time. They motivate and excite me, keep me going back to the pool, not for any competitive glory, but because of a renewed sense of wonder and awe at the sport and swimmers and the physics of bodies in the water.

Dara Torres's Age is Just a Number (http://tinyurl.com/8qc9blq) is a great read for anyone, but particularly for those of us of a certain age, wondering what's left. I love her opening: I've been old before. I was old when I was 27 and I got divorced. I was old when I was 35 and couldn't get pregnant. I was really old when I was 39 and my father died.  I know those feelings. I've expressed the same thoughts myself. I'm sure I was never older than I was at 27. (Those of you who know me know I'm certainly far less mature now than I was then!) She goes on: But when I was 41 and woke up in a dorm in  the Olympic Village in Beijing, I didn't feel old.

Her journey and her determination inspire and motivate, let us see that we're never too old to pursue a dream. Age gives us one benefit over youth. Perspective. What's the worst thing that could happen? We might fail. With perspective, we see that's not so horrible. The beauty is in the journey, the attempt, not in the destination.

Amanda Beard's In the Water They Can't See You Cry" ( http://tinyurl.com/9mjnen3)  is the heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting journey she went through during her years of athletic fame. Hers isn't an uncommon story among world class female athletes. Despite being an incredibly beautiful and talented woman, she felt unworthy, lashed out with self-destructive behaviors. She had problems with bulimia--very common in athletes, and particularly swimmers and divers. Shame on coaches, parents, and spectators feeling the need to comment on these girls' and womens' bodies. Let anyone of them stand on a pool deck in a Speedo in front of thousands of people and see how they stack up. Then get them in the pool and REALLY see what being in shape means! Beard's book is a must read for parents of female swimmers. The pressures she faced are common in the sport. In her case, no one noticed her battle with depression for years. Luckily, someone (her future husband) finally did and she got help and overcame her problem. Knowing all she's gone through makes her that much more of a star in my book.

Amanda Beard (photo from Brooks International)

If you're an Amanda Beard fan, you'll love her blog, Swim Like a Mom too. http://www.swimlikeamom.com/ 

My all time favorite swimming book is Gold in the Water by P.H. Mullen (http://tinyurl.com/bplc822 ). This is a fantastic read for parents and swimmers both. Mullen chronicles the journey of a group of swimmers at the Santa Clara Swim Club trying to qualify for the 2000 Olympics in Australia. He captures the emotional and physical pressures of that journey, and the highs and lows of the athletes as they reach for new heights. If the Olympics got you pumped and ready to up your swim workouts, read this. It'll keep that motivation alive!

In the end, Michael Phelps didn't let us down. He managed to get his head into the games and have some outstanding performances. He, Lochte, Missy Franklin, and all the USA swimmers were outstanding. With a total of 30 medals (16 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze) we showed once again that swimming is our true power sport, the one we always and consistently dominate.

I stand in awe of the greatness our swimmers have achieved, and the greatness they inspire. For more inspiration, read these three books. They'll  make you want to dive right in and start swimming laps!

Olympic Countdown!

Get ready! Here it comes! Only 3 days until the first swimming event of the 2012 Summer Olympics!

The swimming events will take place over 8 days (July 28-Aug 4). The first day will make for an exciting opening with the Men's 400m Individual Medley (IM) and 400m free, and the Women's 400m IM and 4X100 free relay.

Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps will go head to head, right off that bat in the 400m IM. Should set the tone for a VERY exciting week of racing between these two swimming dynamos. I can't wait!!!

M. Phelps (photo from the
London Olympics website www.london2012.com)

Based on his photo at the Olympic website, I'm pretty certain that Phelps is trying to use some reverse psychology to lull his competition into a false sense of security. His pic looks more like a mug shot than the photo of the world's greatest swimmer of all time. Lochte looks every inch the swimmer in his photo. That alone should intimidate the competition!

R. Lochte
(photo from www.london2012.com)

Whichever of these two swimming superstars you're rooting for, the 400 IM promises to be an exciting start to a great week with an almost guaranteed gold for Team USA either way!

I couldn't leave off without at least a touch of Olympic spirit here...Given the very awe-inspiring photos of our 400 IM swimmers and my penchant for rooting for underdogs, I'll be cheering for Qatar's Ahmed Ghithe G Atari, not to win, but to have his best time in the 400 IM. The 5'10" 18-year-old isn't the youngest in the field--that honor goes to 15-year old Zheng Wen Quah of Singapore (who at 5'9" and 127 lbs is also the smallest competitor.) But Atari is by far the most vulnerable looking in the athlete profiles for the event  http://www.london2012.com/swimming/athletes/event=swimming-men-400m-individual-medley/index.htmx     

Scrolling between the photos of Phelps, Lochte, and Atari, I can't help but feel protective of Atari. He looks so young and innocent. It looks like someone snuck a picture of the kid next door into that line up. He's being thrown into the pool with the big sharks! Who knows, maybe he'll turn out to be the shark and surprise all of us. Either way, I wish him well in the event (the only one he's swimming), and hope he has a wonderful, memorable Olympic experience.

A. Atari
(photo from www.london2012.com)

Go TEAM USA! And good luck to ALL the Olympians in the upcoming weeks!

Swimmers' Bliss

Lowcountry Splash 2.4 mile open water swim, May 2011
(yes, I stop swimming to smile and pose for pics!)

"I always wanted to be Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. I can't fly, but swimming is the next best thing. It's harmony and balance. The water is my sky." ~Clayton Jones

Most everyone has heard of runners' high: a euphoric state achieved after running some distance. The effects experienced and distance needed to achieve this state varies from person to person, but most distance runners will tell you they've experienced this state of heightened awareness when their entire run, their entire world comes into focus and is, for a moment, perfect. Other athletes will also tell you they've experienced the equivalent of a runners' high, when "they feel they are working to their maximum potential and feeling on top of the world." The intense emotions and ecstasy of the runners' high is most likely a result of endorphins, opiate pain-relievers found in the brain that are released at times of high physical stress, like during intense exercise.

I've experienced runners' high once or twice--back when I ran marathons and half marathons. But running was never my real passion the way swimming is. Swimmers get their own, special brand of euphoria that I think merits its own category: swimmers' bliss.

Unlike a runners' high that requires significant stress on the body, swimmers' bliss comes about when a person loses themselves entirely to the physical stimuli of the pool. It can occur with the slowest, easiest, and shortest of swims right up to those high-intensity workouts that leave you sweating in the pool, arms too tired to pull you up onto the deck (at which point one might experience a runners' high AND swimmers' bliss.)

The real beauty of swimmers' bliss is that it can be intentionally induced. For me, this is a form of meditation resulting in a unique state of complete sensory stimulation--all 5 senses are involved. At the same time, one experiences the kind of sensory depravation that pools provide: sound is muffled, vision is blurred, the water closes in around you, and there is nothing but you and the water.

There might be other paths to the enlightenment of swimmers' bliss, but my own is this:

1. Count strokes. Perhaps it takes a slight case of OCD, but I have a counting pattern based on alternate side breathing: every 3rd stroke. I count arm strokes for 1 and 2, and pool length for the 3rd stroke with a breath. One, two, one, one, two one....one, two, two, one, two, two...one, two three, one, two, three...for as many lengths as I'm swimming. Turns get their own special rhythm in the count: breathe, two, tuck, push, kick, kick, kick, kick, one, two, breathe...then back to the pattern above.

This counting focuses my brain on the rhythm, lets me push other thoughts from my head. After years of doing this--it's the same method I used as a distance swimmer in high school and college--I don't even think about the count any more. It just happens. When I want to know where I am, I tune in to the numbers that are always running in the back of my mind and there it is, with the length number popping up every third arm pull.

2. Listen. This is something I'd always tell swimmers when I was coaching--it's a great diagnostic tool to make quick fixes to your stroke. Each stroke has its own sounds and rhythms. I listen to my stroke, listen to the water and adjust until it sounds just right. If I hear slapping and splashing, I relax, reach out further, change my stroke. Calm it. The soundtrack to a good freestyle swim, for me, is a steady pulsing that matches my stroke count: shhhhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh as each arm slices in to the water. Behind that, there's a constant, muffled hum of water flowing past my ears, and the blurble of exhaling and haaaa of inhaling. I can hear it and feel it. The sounds become a hypnotic symphony, reinforcing the smooth, rhythm of the stroke. One two three, one two three...a waltz through the water.

3. Watch. This works both indoors and out, but is particularly captivating in outdoor pools, lakes, or the ocean on sunny days. I watch the play of light and dim shadows of my progress through the water on the bottom (or in the water column if I'm in murky or deep water). I see the sparkle of sunlight on the water around me with each breath. Everything beyond a foot or two away is a distant blur, my goggles a barrier, separating my water world from anything else. It's me enveloped in the water's embrace, with nothing outside of that visible to distract me. One of my favorite views while swimming is coming off the wall from a backstroke turn, stretching into a long streamline, and looking up to see my own reflection on the water surface...surrounded by a water-blurred sky beyond.

4. I also feel the water, not just with my fingers and hands, but with my whole body. The water embraces and caresses, running smooth fingers down the length of a swimmer's body. It's surprising how much information the brain receives when I pay attention to that feel: hips are moving out of alignment, legs are sagging or loose, I'm not rolling enough. When I tune into that feel, I can adjust my stroke until I know, in every cell in my body, what the word "sleek" means. (Of course, feeling it and looking it are two different beasts. I can at least feel long and lean in the water, a luxury I'm not afforded on dry land--and perhaps another reason I love the feel of swimming!) I can stretch out long to get every bit of surface area in on the feeling and luxuriate in it. I push my toes back, reach my fingertips forward, and revel in the buoyancy and balance of the water supporting me, and me slicing through the water. There's no better feeling.

5. Smell and taste the water. Maybe it's a swimmer thing, but when I step into a locker room or pool area and smell chlorine, I get a little tingle of excitement in anticipation of the blissful feeling that I know is on the way. Once in the pool, I no longer smell the chlorine, it has become part of my world. Similarly, open waters have their own smells: the earthy, heaviness of lakes and ponds, or the tang of saltwater. All evoke that same anticipation. Once in the water, every breath gives a taste of chlorine, fresh, or salt water on my lips, teasing my taste buds with cool drips and drops.

I'm pretty sure that if you relax and do steps #1 and 2, the rest will follow. Start counting, listen and bliss will come your way. For me, the absolute best part of swimmers' bliss is that, by not working at swimming, but instead immersing myself in the search for bliss, I swim farther and faster than when I approach my swims as a task on my to-do list for the day, or a workout to get through. As a quest for bliss, my swim becomes both a path to something like Buddhist enlightenment and to swimming success.

Like runners' high, I suspect swimmers' bliss is experienced in as many different ways as there are swimmers. However you get it, there's nothing like the complete serenity and self-awareness of swimmers' bliss.

Swimmers, tell us about your blissful swims in the comments section!

The water is your friend. You don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move.

~Aleksandr Popov