Restless

Having rushed back to Berlin from Sharm, I found my mum in intensive care, which was not fun at all. Any freediving was instantly out of the question, and the world record attempt in variable weight I had announced for the beginning of October is suddenly a long way off.  Although my mum is getting much better, it will take her time to be fully recovered and traveling far away does not feel like a good idea over the next few months, meaning I have bailed out of Vertical Blue, too – seems like I am simply not meant to make it to the Bahamas!

While my mum is having fun exercising in the clinic all day every day, I am twiddling my thumbs and feeling restless. What to do with all that focused world-record-energy? I was so desperate to fill the void, I started to go pool training - imagine! Me! In the pool! Coach Martin, who kicked me into shape for the 2009 indoor world championships, is laid up with a bad back, so coach and training partner Elisabeth had to step in to help out. She was always the sweet one, and she still is, only she said to me the other day, when I was feeling especially awful and unmotivated: “I had a nasty CO2 table planned for you, but I would accept a long dynamic instead – that might be less painful over all…”  Lovely! I was thinking more along the lines of: let’s quit this nonsense, and have some coffee!

With no daily regime of breathing, stretching and training to keep me in check, there was nothing to stop me from going out to have my nails painted in the brightest pink available, which had my male friends recoil with horror, claiming I had blinded them, and my female friends shrieking with delight, which just goes to prove that most of the time a girl dresses for the other girls – sorry, boys!

None of this quite serves to get my restless mind off the fact that freediving seems far away. It’s hard to just drop something you have focused on so long. Sniff.

Then again, I believe it may be snowboarding season soon - which means I get to drink lots of beer! Hurrah!