Swimming for strength.

Last week it felt like I'd been sick and run down for a really long time ... That is until today. I bounced back quickly this week, feeling well rested and strong, so I went back to yoga and swimming this morning after a few scattered weeks. I felt beat up after yoga because I took a few weeks off to heal my abdominal strain, but I hopped in the pool happily afterwards. My friend Sally and I swim most Friday mornings and today we were joined by another friend of ours from the masters team, E. Now, she's not quite in her usual English channel swimming training shape right now because she is fighting Pancreatic cancer, but she hopped in with us with a smile on her face. I realized I haven't seen her in months, and not just because I haven't been swimming with the team at 6am for a while, but because she has been sick for months. Months! Now I know lots of people who have dealt with various illnesses for years, my cousin Ted fought colon cancer for 5 years, but somehow seeing E and swimming with her again really helped me put my wimpy illness into perspective. I had to rest and not swim/run/bike for what, 10 days? I am happy to have jumped back into the swing of things quickly, and I am fine now. I took antibiotics for 10 days and it's gone... I don't know exactly how long E has been or will be fighting this cancer, but she's still faster than I am in the pool and I know she'll come back as strong as ever and tackle the Channel next year or whenever it happens for her.
We've been doing 1650yd warm up swims for her since we found out she was sick, somehow hoping the energy we put into the pool will somehow bring her the strength she needs to get through this, but swimming with her had the opposite effect on me- her energy and strength gave me a renewed sense of hope and determination. Funny how that works.

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