Sub aqua distractions...

So what do I think about when I swim? Well, tonight I started with counting... but then, with 25m widths or 50m lengths (depending on which way they've got the pool configured), I have to count or I'd never know what distance I'd covered. It has a similar effect, though, to the counting with which I start each run; it's a zoning out exercise and a bit like going under with the hypnotist, "3, 2, 1 and you're gone...."

That done I then moved on to thinking about work: re-running some of the conversations I'd had during the day... Stop! There's nothing different here from what you said you think about when you run? No, that's right; the first part is all about physically settling into a pace by mentally processing the day at work. My first 100m of swimming is very similar to my first 1000m of running.

Anyway, where was I...? I then moved on to thinking about my last visit to this pool on Tuesday and what a bad experience that had been. I was settling into my pace now. I thought about how I might have handled the situation differently and I started to replay the scene in my head... When a man in a pair of rather well fitting sky blue shorts swam past me in the next lane. He had an athletic build, a light dusting of dark body hair in all the right places and... Did I already mention that he fitted his sky blue shorts rather well?

His swimming technique left much to be desired; too many extraneous movements to be mistaken as a competition swimmer but he swam with an energy and vigour that was quite attractive. I endeavoured to keep up with him, honing in on his rather well fitted sky blue shorts like a dazzling beacon drawing me on. But try as I might he soon left me behind and soon all I could see of him as he disappeared into a chlorinated blur was his wake of silvery effervescence.

We passed each other from time to time in our adjacent lanes but these were fleeting glances. I returned to concentrating on my swim but my counting had been eradicated and forgotten. Had I completed my 500m? Had I excelled with an impressive 1000m? Who knows, all I remember is a pair of rather well fitting sky blue shorts.