First things first, I need to apologize to all of you. Last week I wrote about the lovely and talented Will Ferrell and his obvious connection to the swimming world.

However, I misquoted him, claiming what I was writing about was from Anchorman, when it was actually  from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. More than one of you kindly wrote to me to alert me to my faux pas. But I wanted to clear the air in the hope that I didn’t lose all of my credibility with you guys after that error.

My apologies, I will do better to make sure my future movie references are on point. But in all seriousness please let me know if I say something that is wrong! I really do appreciate you letting me know.

Okay, onto the topic at hand: How you should properly come back to swimming after taking a break from the pool.

The answer? Don’t dawdle.

Don’t put it off until tomorrow.

Stop sleeping in and snoozing your alarm and rolling over.

GET UP AND GET IN THE WATER.

The longer you delay getting back into the swing of things, the harder it’s going to be to get back to your normal routine. This is really more of a mental game than anything else, which of course makes it that much more difficult.

Sleeping in is great. Letting your body rest is 100% something you need to do. As a person guilty of overtraining and running themselves into the ground, I definitely know you need to give yourself a break every now and again. But what I’ve always struggled with is sticking to my plan of getting back to it.

We’ve all been there, saying we’re going to get up tomorrow and get back into the pool. Only to look at our clocks in the morning and decide to put it off one more day. Which inevitably turns into 3 more days, then a week, and so on and so forth.

I’m still guilty of this, to this very day. The last time I took a break from swimming was before my wedding seven months ago. And I have yet to get back in the routine of going to swim practice. The past 2.5 weeks I swam twice a day during our Bahamas Training Trip. But that was because I was hosting it and was more or less obligated to. Not because I pulled up my britches and sucked it up and got back to my workout routine. I’m technically still on my break…

The best thing I can equate this to is healthy eating. When I’m on a roll and sticking to a certain type of nutrition, everything is fine and dandy. Have a treat here or there, but in general stay with my goals. It’s when I take a few days off, start ordering multiple pizzas, get the BOGO Oreos and 75% off holiday candy and can’t stop myself from “stocking up on the ice cream that might soon be discontinued” (yes, that’s real, here’s looking at you Cookie Butter ice cream from Trader Joe’s) that I have a problem.

The more I eat junk, the more I crave junk. Plain and simple.

And the longer you go without swimming; the easier it will be to stay away from the pool. So don’t be like me and buy every last piece of clearance Valentine’s Day candy your pharmacy has to offer and forget that real food doesn’t come from CVS. Stick to your plan, get up, and get back into the water.

You’re going to feel better for it and your body and your goals will thank you.

Lissa Henderson

Tri Swim Coach