Scratching my head

It happened last Tuesday. I was almost done with my session. As I was about to go under water to push of the wall a lady (in her late 30ies) who was also on the lane came and stopped me. I noticed that she started her session a couple of minutes ago. She was wearing one of these #IRONMANtri caps plus had earphones on pluged into an mp3-player attached to the strap of her googles. She swam okish, I guess as far i could judge she could swim a pace of 2 minutes 30 seconds on a 100m. She complimented me that I swam very well and she liked my technique. Then she proceeded to tell me thay she had already completed three IRONMANs and would want to try to qualify for Kona, obviously I complimented her back for her achievement. It is amazing to finish an IRONMAN plus I wished her good luck.

Then she started to complain about swimming and that it is the most boring part of an IRONMAN plus swimming training is only bearable because of her mp3-player she was using. Well, I didn‘t say anthing and we continued just chatting for a bit.

But obviously, I scratched my head in my thoughts about her statement. I mean just to give more insights about how she trained. She did just continuous laps no intervals, no drills nothing, same pace through the whole session. Without judging, if I would go and train like that, yes it would be boring too!! Definitly!!

I asked her first of all if she always trains like this which she confirmed and then I asked her how she trains cycling and running? There she told me that she would do intervals and change routes and mix it up to make it interesting. I also asked her if she uses her mp3-player there too and she said no as those two disciplines are not boring at all. I didn‘t say anything, she didn‘t really noticed my hints or what I was trying to say to her. She seemed to have a plan for everything and that is good. Plus she already finished an IRONMAN and I didn‘t.

But in all fairness, why would you not plan your swimming sessions similar to your cycling and running sessions? Why? Trust me that is the fun part about it. This is where you can push yourself and you will realise the session passes without thinking! Well, well she is one of many I encounted over the years like this...