If only we could turtle ourselves lol xx
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Haha, I would want to see @Soberbilly version. His Ken looked like he was about to take a serious swim after a day of brain surgery, before he went to the shelter to pick up the dogs that had been there the longest time and had given up hope (I may have overthought this one 
)
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u are hilarious 
xx
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You and @CATMANCAM are the first ones I thought about as we already build this little virtual TS swimmers club last year.
Now it seams to groooow - so happy to c you all here and read about your experiences. Welcome @Pandita too 
@Soberbilly
It’s not only about pro swimming, any water sports or fascination of water is welcome.
Hope to virtually meet you loving meditative floating turtle 
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Yay to this thread!! I look over on the runners thread. I am terrible at running, don’t really do it, and when I do, it causes me a good deal of pain in my knees. But I WANT to run. I even follow a lot of ultra runners on Insta, and read books by ultra runners.
There’s just some thing about getting out and moving that I really appreciate. And it’s becoming really clear to me, that a lot of that appreciation has to do with my mental health and sanity. As I’m approaching 40 though, I realize that I can stop being mad that I’m not a runner, and start moving in whatever way feels best for me. That way is swimming.
My dad has been a swimmer for 30 years. In the summer he swims 1 to 2 miles a day and then the other months at least 3/4 of a mile a day. Last summer, we went to upstate New York and I got to do a 3/4 of a mile swim to an island with him. It reminded me that swimming is some thing I’m actually good at, and I feel free when I’m doing it
During my pregnancy, I swim as it was the only time that the nerve pain in my leg would calm down, and it kept me active. After taking some time off to have my baby, I’ve been back in the water about five times. And I am up to doing a kilometer at a time. Usually a five lap cycle of left side, breathing crawl, right side, breathing crawl, kick board lap, a breaststroke lap, and then a swimmers, choice lap.
My appreciation, for it only continues to grow. There’s some thing about getting in that water, connecting with my breath, letting my body feel weightless and free and letting my endorphins kick in that just does it for me.
I’m noticing that I’m especially fond of when it’s really early in the morning and I drive to the pool and it’s a little foggy out, and nobody’s around, and I get to swim in the quiet beauty of the outdoors. That is when I’m happiest.
Sorry for the long post, but I hadn’t realized how excited I was about this thread! Thank you for starting it!
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We have last 2 weeks of vacation and once my kiddos will go back to playgroup and school, Im planning to swim, once a week. I’m not a good swimmer but I loooove to swim.
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I’m from the St. Louis Area in Missouri. My app uses Meters so that’s what i go with
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For me, there’s nothing like the pool. I drive 20 minutes on my lunch break just to spend 20 minutes at the pool cause of what it does to my confidence and energy. I try to get a good stretch in after swimming too. What’s funny: I get out of the pool and usually 15 minutes later i’m still sweating!!! I find that i push myself alot harder in the pool than i ever would in the weight room. I know i need to do a better job at lifting weights because i’m trying to change my body composition. Striking the balance is where i’m aiming now. My pool will be shut down for cleaning 19th - 26th, so this week i plan on hitting it tuesday (today) thursday and hopefully friday. Next week we’ll jump over to circuit training in the gym.
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Just got done with my kilometer in the pool. Have to get back to relieve grandpa of kiddo watching duty…but…I managed to steal five minutes in both the hot tub AND sauna! 
I’m deciding to work with mantra/affirmation and I’ve commited to using one until the end of the year that came to me the other day while I was swimming:
I am creating an easy and joyful relationship with my body, food, money and life, EVERYday.
I was saying it to myself sometimes as I was swimming. As I was in my last five lap cycle I found my internal monologue shouting to my body “I love you! I love you! You’re doing it! I love you!” This was quite spontaneous and took me by surprise.
It is a FAR cry from what my mind was telling myself six years ago in the throes of addiction.
We do recover. 
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Welcome Ely…
Welcome to the club! 
Thanks for the insights of your personal swim storry. To me it’s a family thing too, my mother brought me to the pool since being few months and we trained together until I was 13, 14. Then I had some other things to do but I always got back to the pool and trained in dlrg (german lifesavers) later. My grandfather was a lifesaver already and I got my gold certification in may this year… To be honest it was easy for me. Exhausting but easy and the trainer was positively amused about my performance. I had to show some things to the group and help demonstrating dangerous situations. Maybe I will go back to the trainings in autumn, when the outdoor pools are closed.
Your message is never to long for this thread!
I am super happy if you keep up sharing.
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Wow this is just wonderful 
I might copy your affirmation as I need to work on some better mindset after the relaps weeks reactivating depression 
Need to try this underwater 
Especially if I swim alone, I love to get a special vibe by some powerful, pushing music before entering the pool. So the song is with me underwater for working out 
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Nice! I love using music to create a mood…particularly when I’m about to move. I guess it’s the dancer in me! My favorite used to be snowboarding. I never did it very often (had to save the body for dance) but MAN would I love to create a playlist with badass music for heading down the mountain. Nothing crazy, I stuck to the beginner and intermediate slopes. The long ones that tended to wind around the outside of the mountain. And I would turn up the tunes and let ‘er rip!
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@Juli1, I posted this on another thread awhile back, but I wanted to share with all y’all…
From Sharon Salzberg…
"I have found this aspect of hope in unexpected places and with people I barely know. A few years ago, I was teaching a stress-reduction workshop with women who work in domestic violence shelters. We asked the women to write down their sources of stress in one column and what they did to handle stress in the second. Many women said they handled stress by being in nature or pursuing a hobby. Yet they could not remember the last time they had done these things.
That realization made a connection for all of us, those conducting the workshop as well as the women who worked at the shelter. We are all stressed at times, all fearful and sometimes despondent, but we might not be doing much to help move away from these hopeless feelings. Or we might be.
My friend Willow just started her new year with a commitment to swim five times a week to reduce stress. It’s still a struggle, but often what draws her there is the big Jacuzzi right next to the pool. It can hold twenty people but there are usually only two or three lazing there, letting the underwater jets massage away their aches. Sometimes she dreams about it, she said, and there is relief in having this luxury so close at hand.
Last week, her swim didn’t go very well. She was distracted and didn’t feel much joy being in the pool. In the Jacuzzi, she found three people talking about the exact topic that dominated her mind during her swim: her aging dad. All of the others were caring for elderly relatives in various states of decline. Willow at first was too shy to join the discussion. Eventually, the water worked its magic and she felt comfortable enough to speak.
“I feel terrible about him all the time,” she told her companions. “I feel like I’m doing so much and also that I’m not doing enough.”
One of the women shook her head kindly. “No, don’t think that. You’re doing exactly the right thing,” she told Willow. “You come here every day and you leave it in the water.”
In order to work for change — in our personal lives or in the world — we need to find the ordinary things that can help us sustain our energy and optimism. The idea of leaving what we can’t control in the water spoke to my idea of hope.
What Willow experienced was the buoyancy of hope, not the burden. She connected to strangers who were also carrying a terrible burden and through one she got the simplest and least conflicted feeling of support. Do the best you can. Live according to your values and intentions, while knowing that you may not always succeed in your aspirations. The actions you’re taking are honorable and those feelings of despair and inadequacy are part of the human condition. When you find community with others, you know you are doing the best you can with what you have.
The rest you can leave in the water."
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That is beautiful. My goodness. Thank you so much for posting that!
That’s exactly what i do: Leave it in the water. I come to the water with my addiction, with all my insecurities, and the moment i start my Front Crawl, it’s channeled into something constructive. Even if i dont have that ‘juice’ and dont feel as fast in the water, i’m so thankful that i’m just here, and i feel like it’ll be alright. Yesterday i only did 15 lengths, but it’s H.I.I.T, so it’s literally like Sprinting full speed ahead. In 20 minutes, i was done!
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Hello fellow swimmers 
Just got back from the pool, managed 30 minutes of laps and the rest was just messing around with the kids. My son is now coming regularly too, really pleased. I need to build up my lung capacity as it is those that slow me down. Absolutely loving it though.
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Hello my Swim Fam,
Just knocked out a HIIT swim at lunch. Didn’t have a ton of time, usually around 18-20 minutes, but i pushed myself today. Those 16 laps, 10-12 of those were as hard as i can as if i was racing someone. No better feeling that walking into the gym and seeing a Lane Open, i get this huge endorphin spike to hurry down there before someone takes the lane!! lol!
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I had a 3000 today
The time is including pausing for some short talks and changing equipment (toys )…
And look at that heartrate. I am not good in butterfly but I tried some rounds in the end, it was fun and exhausting.
Dear TS swim club,
you all won’t believe how happy you make me joyning this swim thread with your storries and experiences. I thought about creating this thread for a long time but I didn’t expect that so many would joyn it.
Happy swimming
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Glad i scrolled up and found your post. I love that. Your doing it your doing it! That self Love is everything.
Your post reminds me of a song from the Across the Spiderverse soundtrack called, “Self Love.” Awesome.
So i’m a pretty goofy person, when i’m swimming/sprinting. I literally as i’m counting down to a sprint, i think of myself as “The Flash” and envision lightening bolts in my eyes. Sounds silly but speed is everything for me giving my best and it’s this self belief that fuels my workouts!
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