Done with swimming, what now?

At the end of February, I swam my last meet as a competitive swimmer. For 15 years, I dedicated my life to the sport. Swimming is one of those sports you have a love/hate relationship with. You love the sport itself and the racing, the 4:30 wake-up calls and constant exhaustion and soreness; however, are definitely making you question why you do it.

Without swimming I wouldn't be where I am today and I wouldn't be who I am today. In my career, I've also had a lot of ups and downs, and it's easy to say I've had more downs than ups. Looking at the downs and ups, the downs were more often performance related, whereas the ups were mostly related to life experiences. Without swimming, I most likely wouldn't have ended up in the United States and wouldn't have done all these amazing things and wouldn't have had these great opportunities.

But, I'm done now. So where does that leave me? This is something I definitely have struggled with. Being done with swimming competitively definitely has its pros and cons.

There are pros that come with being a "retired" swimmer. For starters, my alarm isn't set for super early every morning. Not practicing 20+ hours in my week opens up time to do other things such as catching up on reading or other hobbies. Now I can go and work out whenever I want and don't have to do what someone tells me to do; I can follow my own schedule and do the things I enjoy, and think are good for me. Not being extremely exhausted and sore all the time also definitely is a pro of not swimming. My skin and hair are not being beaten down by the chlorine every day and are actually starting to look much healthier.

Besides the pros, there are some cons to not swimming anymore that I have noticed recently. After swimming for so long and having all these goals, I have felt lost and unmotivated to do any sports or other types of workouts because I do not have a clear goal of what I want to achieve yet. I have struggled a lot with finding a routine also. With swimming, my schedule was the same every week and we practiced at the same times. I really enjoy having a routine and that makes me function better. Now that I don't have this "forced" routine I have really struggled with finding it. Another con is that no matter what, you'll gain weight. Swimming is such an endurance-based and intense sport so you burn many calories when working out. Without this, it's super easy to gain weight, which definitely is a major con. I'm sure there are other things, but these are the major ones I've noticed after being done.

I want to get into lifting more, and I have off and on. After my last meet though, I've struggled a lot with finding the motivation to get up and work out. This just shows that adjusting to a major change in life takes time and that I should adjust to it in the way it feels good for me. For now, I want to get into lifting, create a routine, and find a new goal.