I do lots of different workouts, but there is nothing like a hard swim session in the pool, to make me feel hungry and tired. As I write this blog post, I am eating some fresh fruit and yoghurt, and my body is aching.

My body isn’t hurting at all.  I just have that dull feeling in my muscles, that lets me know that I have worked them hard. It is all part of the process of building strength. Breaking down muscles fibers and them letting them build back stronger through good recovery.

The reason that I am particularly tired today, is that I had one of my longest ever swims using paddles.  My total yardage today was 3,600 yards and I swam more than half of them using paddles.  Many of the lengths with paddles were also at high effort, so I was really pulling a lot of water at times.

The good news is that consistently doing this kind of work in the pool, pays dividends over time.  There would have been a time, a year or so ago, when I would have fatigued in the pool and completely lost form.  I was really happy today, because I was able to maintain pace and my form, right up to the end of the workout.

So my message today is, don’t be afraid to swim so hard, that you get very hungry and feel tired. Hard swims are good for you.