Everything I need to know I forgot after kindergarten.

This is my niece, Greta, at her 3rd birthday party last summer. Greta has been taking swimming lessons since she was 9 or 10 months old and, as you can see, they have paid off. She is totally comfortable in the water and already swims pretty well. Its amazing to watch. Before I saw Greta in a pool, I never really understood the point of baby swim lessons. Now, I get it- babies really can swim! Also, by putting them in the pool early, you take advantage of that fearlessness which most young children seem to have.

Its hard to recapture that fearlessness at 31, as I was reminded this evening during my second attempt at swimming. My parents didn't put me in the pool as an infant, but I took swim lessons every summer from about second grade through middle school. Back then, I was actually pretty good. In fact, swimming was the only childhood athletic activity in which I experienced real success. Given those positive early experiences, I was hoping that returning to the pool would feel natural and fun. Boy, was I wrong!

The good news is that I still enjoy swimming. The bad news is twofold:

First, despite being a relatively fit and strong person, I find swimming really hard. With running and biking, I find that fitness gained in one tends to carry over into the other. So, the longer I can run, the longer I can stay on a bike (and vice versa). Not so with swimming. The pool seems determined to humble me. As I approach, I can almost hear it saying "You think you're hot stuff because you ran 10 miles last week? Well, now you're going to be winded in 25 yards." I see the people gliding effortlessly by in the lanes on either side and I want to shout "Hey- I'm a good runner! I can lift a lot of weight! Really!"

Second, I am still having trouble swimming underwater. As a kid, my biggest challenge in swimming was learning to breathe correctly and efficiently, so I expected to find that challenging again. What I did not expect was that holding my breath underwater would suddenly be both difficult and panic-inducing. Last week, I could not get myself to go more than a stroke or two underwater. This week, I pushed myself and made it to a few strokes, but as soon as I tried to take a breath, I found myself sputtering and flailing around. So, as with last week's pool workout, I did most of my swimming above the water, which is slow and inefficient.

At this point, I think I'm going to have to pony up the money for a few lessons. Ideally, I need to find a swim instructor/therapist who can guide me through some systematic desensitization. We can start by blowing bubbles in the bathtub, then sit in the shallow end, then put our heads under... Or, maybe I can just hit up Greta for tips.