During Week One of the challenge, I managed to schedule a kettlebell workout and a swim workout on the same day! It was early going, so I was still working up my kettlebell numbers. And – no easy way around this – I was sore. I was quite stiff going into the kettlebell workout, and I was pretty sure I would be completely toast when I hit the pool. In fact, my intention was basically to just float around.

Surprise number one was the fact that I still felt like going to the pool after the kettlebells. I had a snack, grabbed my pool stuff, and headed over. Last year, during the KB challenge, my pool kick was terrible. I expected about the same this time.

Surprise number two was the fact that I completely forgot I had just done the kettlebells. It was swimming as usual. Not only that, but I ended up doing a number of kick sets (50m or 100m), and felt great. When class ended, I still felt pretty good, but began thinking of how awful I would feel tomorrow: sore muscles times two.

Surprise number three was the fact that, by the next day, I did not feel sore. Nothing. I actually felt quite good. But the mystery remained: WHY WAS I NOT SORE?

It remains unsolved. I don’t know, and I can’t explain it based on what I know about tough workouts and micro-tears and lactic acid. My only theory (and it is weak on evidence) is that, somehow, all that kicking massaged and worked out out any built-up lactic acid (I said it was weak).

So if you have any explanation about why a swim workout could possibly have negated the sore muscles from a heavy leg workout, I would LOVE to hear it. Please email me. If you only have webmail, the email link won’t work – send me a comment!