It is good to have a goal, direction. When I started swimming, my goal was small—to be able to swim 100 yards without stopping. That was actually not that easy at first. I began to understand what my kids went through in swimming. After I achieved that goal, I wanted to be able to swim 300 yards. My last achieved goal was 2000 yards.

Somewhere along the line I decided to swim elementary back stroke in order to keep moving, keep breathing, and keep reaching towards my goal. I got used to the low level fatigue you have for the whole workout.

Now I found out I was on the right track. According to this website, that’s the way you build up to swimming a mile. Swim any stroke, later to be substituted with crawl, or freestyle, as it’s called in competitive swimming. I have been really slow to do that part. I have gotten used to all the elementary back stroke, or what I call my cool-down laps.

But the swim a mile in 6 weeks program looks pretty doable. I have been off my swim schedule since I had a baby in March. I will try this program and write about my progress when I get back to the pool.