Victory through defeat

I had an interesting swim session this morning down with the Swim Smooth squad. Anybody who has read this blog before will know that the Wednesday morning swim is a tough one. It is long (around 5km) and demanding and it is always a big mental battle getting yourself down to the pool and then through the session. Mentally one of the toughest sessions of the week for me.

Today was no real difference. As usual though I got myself down there and into the pool, ready for another round of mental battle.

The way training is arranged at Swim Smooth is that we have four lanes which all vary in pace. But within each lane there is usually at least two separate groups (sometimes three) all working to their own paces too. Whilst you are training with the squad, really you are training with around 4 or 5 other people who swim at a similar speed to yourself.

As we got into the session it was obvious that the group I train with was struggling. We were already working on our limit and some days it isn't there. The session was asking questions that our group didn't have answers to. On top of that, on a Wednesday it is usual that about half of the group get out early to get to work, reducing the group down to around 3 people for the final kilometre or so of the session. After about two thirds of the session I could see that this was going to happen and that the remainder of the group was losing motivation. Once you pop on a Wednesday session, the desire and ability to work hard rapidly evaporates. I could see the session was on the path to a bit of an implosion.

So at this point I took the decision to actually drop out of my normal group and swim the remainder of the session with the 'slower' group behind us. Whilst I knew they were working to a slower pace, I also knew that they were right on song with the session and that they would be putting in an honest effort for the remainder of the session. I figured that completing the session properly, even if it was slower, would be better than popping completely and getting out early.

Swimming with them I found just that. Yes the target pace was slower, but we were really chasing it. I found that I was working just as hard, possibly even harder, than I would have been if I had been just surviving in my usual group. It was an interesting realisation for me. I had assumed dropping back that the rest of the session would be a doddle, but it was far from it. As a result I finished the session feeling like I had had a win, rather than finishing the session feeling like it had beaten me.

But you swam slower I hear you say. Well yes, but if I ignore the time for a moment and focus on the work, I know that moving to the group behind allowed me to complete the session as it was intended, at the intensity that was also intended. For me that is the important key. Speed will come and go as you have days where you feel great and others where you don't. The important thing is consistency in the training and dropping back allowed me to have that.

In a way it feels like admitting defeat during the session actually resulted in me feeling like I succeeded at it. Strange.

Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that I will be dropping back to that group permanently, or even regularly. However, this did show me that doing isn't the big disaster that I may have previously felt it would be. In fact this morning's session showed me that it can be the exact opposite.