More than a year ago I was noticing how helpless I was when trying to do some swimming alone, without my coach around. When alone in the swimming pool, I always managed to find hundreds of reasons why to not continue swimming. With the coach yelling at me from the side of the pool, everything was suddenly possible. 
But then I noticed something started to change, bit by bit. When we were this June in Crete on a short holiday, on our favourite South-East part of this wonderful island, I managed to do a lot of swimming, every day, quite some distances. And jogging keeps becoming more and more easygoing, enjoyable, no struggle at all. Am I recovering? Am I waking up from my death bed? Has somebody finally replaced my batteries? Yes, indeed, I hear you asking all these questions. 
And today the big victory came. After leading the first day of a conflict resolution training here in Norway with a very inspirational group of students from literally all over the world, I went for a swim in the pool and guess what: although I was totally alone in the pool and my trainer being about 1.800 km air distance away (I am not yet rich enough to drag my coach around with me, though it would be fancy, right?), I did the whole regular training, all the laps, distances, everything. On my own.
Am I hearing standing ovations? Good, good, thanks a lot, this is just the appreciation, acknowledgement and support I have been needing.
So, I guess something is getting stronger. Is it the mind? Is it the body?
Whatever it is, it’s alive.
Yes, standing ovations from me. To discipline yourself is really very important or better most important thing for success. In your case in sport, but this attitude can/will be transfered to other fields of life.
Good luck!
Comment by Aleš — October 6, 2009 @ 7:25 am
I’m standing in my room cheering and applausing and smiling. I’m so glad for you you’re reaching this stage after making the effort to keep going although it was tough.
I feel so alive when you feel alive!
And now a question/comment: why do you have this “rate this” thing come up at the end of each comment? how can we rate something down? It feels like it’s encouraging judgment and this feels strange. And even if it is to rate up, it encourages the similar. I’m very suprised to find this on your blog because it’s not so much the I agree/disagree, like/don’t like that counts but what’s behind, so I’d be glad if you could let me know what’s your idea with it.
And greet Norway for me!
Anne-Claire
Comment by Anne-Claire Chene Geffroy — October 6, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Aleš – welcome! Yes, if feels like a small step for the mankind, but a huge leap for me – definitely a good feeling.
Anne-Claire – thanks for the cheering.
Rating business; I don’t really know how it came about (I guess I clicked something by coincidence), I noticed it was there and thought that wordpress put it there, or whatever, didn’t give it much thought. Now I went through the setting and managed to switch it off. Thanks for reminding.
And Norway – oh boy, do they have some rain here. They say it has been raining for a couple of months non stop. Which makes it a perfect environment to stay in bed, read, cuttle… All nice things.
Comment by Robert — October 6, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
Young Frankenstein has to be one of my favourite movies. Just thinking about Gene Wilder puts a smile on my face.
By the way, what do you think about while you swim?
Comment by razzbuffnik — October 7, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
Apparently it’s only western Norwegian coast that gets that much rain (it’s the combination of the North Sea and the mountains that does it). This Bergen area seems to get the most of it (rain I mean) in the whole Norway. A Norwegian friend who moved to Bergen from Oslo says that Bergen weather does make one appreciate any minute when the sun is out… people get really alive, and grateful, in those (rare) minutes… living in the moment… pure zen…
Comment by Marjeta — October 7, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
Razz – At first I wanted to say: well, the same stuff as I do when I run or cycle: just about whatever, but in general it is about peacefully completing thoughts I had not been able to complete before, following the associations, letting the impressions of the day/week sink, digesting them… Stuff like that. But it seems to me that it is really more complex in the pool. A part of my attention goes into trying to count the lengths I am doing. Counting from one to 16, for instance, is really easy, but it is weird how difficult it is to count 16 lengths when in the pool.
Another portion of my attention goes into observing my technique and making sure it is OK. Crawl may seem like a pretty straightforward thing, but once you get really into it, every movement of the little finger counts, so it is an never-ending story. So, I see I am actually pretty busy when swimming.
Comment by Robert — October 8, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
Its alive… oh its alive…
Comment by UTP — October 8, 2009 @ 7:10 pm
UTP: hey, good to know you are still alive, alive…
Long time no hear from you.
Comment by Robert — October 18, 2009 @ 9:45 pm