Of all the triathlon sports, the one that was most clearly impacted by the global Covid pandemic, was swimming.  My local pool was closed for nine of  twelve months this year, and living quite far north, meant that open water swimming was mostly limited to the summer months.

Here are the statistics for my swimming this year (numbers in parentheses are the equivalent 2019 numbers):

• Total Number of Swims = 50   (117)
• Total Distance = 70.4 miles   (170.9 miles)

So, as expected, my swim numbers were much lower this year.  This was a little frustrating at times, because I had a very promising start to the year.  Before the pools closed, I was in a very good place with my swimming.  I felt that I was improving significantly, and really starting to build some good swim endurance.  All that stopped in March, when the pool closed.  I didn’t swim again until June 9th.

With the pools closed, I did swim a lot more at the lake this year.  I was good to get there, first thing in the morning and swim alone, while my wife watched me.  Those swims were very peaceful.

I did manage to get back into the pool for about a month in November, but once again the pool was shut down in December.  As I write, it looks like the pool may open up again in January. I hope it does, because I have started to enjoy swimming and I need to continue to improve.