Four degrees colder

Speed and distance information is a valuable part of a training program to help you achieve peak performance. And if I were an athlete it would make sense that I like to track how far, fast and for how long I walk, bike or swim.

But I'm not. I just like keeping track.

For over 20-years, the first summer lake swim has been in June and the last in September. All these years, I have wanted to know the temperature of the water. Canadian lakes even when the sun warms the surface stay pretty cold.  You can feel this difference when diving.

So this summer, I invested big time in a five-dollar thermometer.  Now I check the lake's temperature before each swim.

Summer Lake Temp Report: 67-74 degrees

• First June dive - 67 degrees. Too cold, but do-able
• Most others days -  72 degrees. Just fine
• One warm weekend -  74 degrees. A treat

  

After this weekend of rain and cooler temperatures, I was really curious how cold the lake might be before I dove in. It was 68 degrees. I spoke to the lake,  "not today, it's too cold for swimming." 

How did a drop of only four degrees from the summer-time norm of 72 to today's 68 influence my decision to forgo swimming?  
Four degrees - really?

A Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training program I took a few years ago coupled with my own mindful efforts, let me think about it in this way.

If we try to accept things as they are without comparing and evaluating against personal bests, standards or other benchmarks, without leaning on our tendencies to view our experiences in terms of what we like and what we dislike, we can potentially free ourselves from any set expectations and just  'dive' into the experience.

I went back down the stone stairs leading to the dock and dove in. 




I used two strategies:

1. Mild shaming -- "if you can swim when it's 67 degrees, you can swim when it's 68 degrees."
2. Then, with a degree of mindfulness, I said -- "it's only because you are comparing one experience to another that you are hesitating."  
   

Together, these two strategies worked perfectly. The water was cold and wonderful.

Warmly, but not as warm as usual,
Coach Minda

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