My favourite water running sessions.
Here are some of my favourite workouts, all of which I did with a couple of minutes easy either side to make for a 60-90 minute session. I have been doing 60-90 minutes 4 times a week, but these can easily be made longer or shorter by changing number of reps to fit any time/fitness level. The rule I went by for adapting running into the water was to do similar rep times as I would for a distance (Eg 400m = 75-80 seconds, 1km = 3:20-3:30 etc), and whatever the track workout was, I would halve the rest/recovery between reps and sets as you recover quicker in the water and need more time at effort to keep your heart rate high.
That first run back after injury.
The first 30 seconds felt like I was a baby girraffe taking my first steps, and at least in my mind must have looked like it. Then, with each successive 30 second run I found my stride, grew in confidence, and by the third rep the tears were coming. I was running. After 105 days without one of the things I love most in life, I was back. The walks became me just trying to compose myself between bouts of running, and I knew I was getting faster and faster but I was so, damn, happy. Nothing was hurting. Despite the foreigness of it all again, I felt strong, and capable. Everything I love about the movement was reawakening in me.
The value in the struggle of therapy.
That is perhaps the first struggle of any type of psychotherapy or deep internal work; the anxiety and fear. It is confronting to walk into a room knowing I am going to be asked to face up to my true self and explore my deepest reality. Sure I could hide behind the masks I have been crafting for years, but that would negate the reason for being there in the first place. Instead I have learned to see the anxiety for what it is; a positive. It is a sign that what I am doing means something to me, and is important. If I didn't have a sense of anxiety before being in a situation that evokes such powerful feelings of vulnerability and pain, I would say either the walls I have up are so thick I have even myself fooled, or I have somehow become so wise and content that I have nothing internal worth working through. Thankfully, I am years beyond my protective layer being thick enough to fool myself, but I am also many lifetimes away from having nothing internal I can do to improve my wellbeing.
You Can Do Hard Things.
That is why I ran my first marathon, it was damn scary and hard. Why I started skydiving, I feared heights but loved flying. Why I went off as a single 21 year old female traveller to Kenya for a month. That is also why I chase big dreams and put myself out there when I do. Because like many, I have always feared going all in on something and feared judgement from others. The big question always comes - If I give this my all, and that isn't enough, what do I do then? Now I know. Adapt and keep trying. I also know that the more in touch with myself I am and the more I love my own decisions, the less I need others to love them, or even care about them.