Swimming.

I've always loved to swim, ever since I became a life guard as a part of my training in scouts; I've always loved to swim. When I moved to the residence halls at Wesleyan I searched for some way to blow off steam and relax from the tense world of college. I then realized that we had a pool, so I started swimming 4 times per week. There's something very calming about swimming, I always swim front crawl style because it offers the most consistent speed and muscle usage. When I started swimming again last semester I could only swim about 25- 50 meters at a time, and rest in between. After that I decided to double until I reached 100, and 200. Finally I decided that counting only distracted me from my relaxation and goals. It was then that I discovered the beauty of long distance swimming. When I stopped doing laps I started swimming against time. I would swim for a set period of time and not stop, I started with 10 minutes and grew to 15. This was a tremendous challenge but I found it much more rewarding and relaxing. As I kept doing It I focused less on pacing myself or swimming at a relaxed pace, and started to see how far I could push myself. Now I push myself for 20 minutes and I am going to make the jump to 25 or 30 before the semester's up.


This footage was taken from the FINA Swimming Championship in Manchester England this year. The world record was broken for the 400 meter relay at 3 minutes 8 seconds. which is a speed for about 2.13 m/s (4.74 mph) this may sound slow but it's a breakneck speed for swimming, my fastest time is 50 meters in 40 seconds (about 1.25 m/s) and that's when I'm hauling, using every ounce of energy I have for that short period of time. I still only measure up to half of the world record average speed for a race 8 times longer.


When I swim I am lost in a world of repetitive motion and pulse. I find that this environment allows me to breach my mental walls and focus on a metaphysical level. Nights after I swim I find myself feeling renewed and sharp, a form of self baptism. any other workout leaves me feeling weak, sick, or dead. Perhaps it's the fact that I immerse myself into the building block of life on this planet in order to exercise.