Beth Cook’s Swim Story

I’m excited to introduce you to today’s guest. I’ve had the joy of supporting Beth for the past two seasons. It’s just amazing to work with someone who fully embraces the path of continuous improvement and surprises themselves with what’s possible along the way!

I hope that you enjoy Beth’s story!

If you would like to join us on the path of continuous improvement, it’s an opportunity to do more than resolve to change as one usually does this time of year. It’s an opportunity to embrace a new strategy with a clear vision of where you want to go – and WHY. Make this the year that you support yourself in the progress you seek to make. Change is hard, let’s do it together!

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In her own words:

Swimming is not my first love. I live in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, USA and hiking has always been my native place of reprieve. I developed joint issues in my hip and knees in my mid-20s, which led me to seek swimming as an alternate form of fitness. Being an “adult-learn-to-swim” was hard, and I feel like I still have challenges understanding my body in the water. But the challenge of swimming is one of the reasons that I keep at it!

Open water swimming was a natural fit for me. I am a relatively slow and steady swimmer, so short sprints in pool competition left me feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. Swimming in nature let me experience the outdoors in new ways. I found a passion for carrying my googles with me on long hikes and jumping in mountain lakes for an adventuresome swim. My favorite was a dip in “Iceberg Lake” in Glacier National Park and a moose jumped in too! I also had the opportunity to swim around a castle in Switzerland. The bottom of the lake just simply disappeared; I later found out on the castle tour that it was 1000 feet deep there! Yikes! Our local lake holds many adventures as well. My most memorable moment was when my friend sent the ice cream boat to deliver a cone to me on a long training swim. Yum!

The challenge of swimming also lets me do something for ME. I feel the majority of my time is dedicated to serving my 6 and 8 year old at home, or serving my high school students to understand chemistry while at work. Do not get me wrong, I love it! Yet I embrace the opportunity to set aside time for my interests and health, then struggle, set goals, and make progress toward them. Fortunately, I stumbled into SwimMastery and coaching with Shannon at Intrepid Water 2 years ago after experiencing shoulder and neck pain. The SwimMastery approach was perfect for me. With my demanding “mom-schedule,” I do not allocate large blocks of time for swimming thousands upon thousands of yards. I am not sure that I would enjoy that. I swim three times a week for an hour (before my children wake up of course! ha!) using purposeful technique and tempo focused practices. I also embrace the freedom to incorporate my joy of land exercise, including mountain biking, running, and strength training to enhance fitness for marathon swims. I add a long lake swim once a month as time gets closer to a marathon swim event. My hope is that everyone can find their own sweet spot for open water swimming: your preferred body of water, your favorite training combination, and friends that make the experience even better.