Maybe swimming isn't for me

I tried something different this morning. I did my normal cardio workout (intervals), today it was the elliptical for thirty five minutes, then a few lower body weights for about twenty minutes, then swimming again, for only twenty minutes.

The reason for only twenty minutes of swimming:  I almost drowned in five foot of water. I'm serious.

While I was in the middle of my fifth lap of doing the backstroke, I somehow flung a bunch of water up my nose as I was inhaling. I panicked, started coughing, choking, and gasping for air. I tried to stand up but couldn't touch the bottom of the pool. My mind couldn't register this because I was sure the pool was four foot, even in the deepest area. I'm 5' 6", I should have been able to stand up and touch bottom.

There were only two other people in the pool with me, swimming the lanes on each side of me. As I coughed and choked, they kept swimming. I grabbed onto the plastic rope that separates the lanes and gathered my composure. I was mainly embarrassed, and a little bit afraid. Then I saw the sign on the edge of the pool next to me. It said "5 Ft.". Okay. I can touch the bottom. I stood up, on my toes, with my head tilted back and quietly walked a few feet until I was in the four foot area. I swam a few more laps but I'd lost my momentum.

After the pool I went into the dry sauna for six minutes (thermometer said it was 205F degrees...I think it must have been broken). Then I went into the steam room for six minutes.

All day I was absolutely physically exhausted. It wasn't a hard workout so I'm not sure why I was (and still am) so wiped out.

Someone recently told something that's making me rethink this whole swimming thing. They said recent research has shown older people are happier people. The reason is because older people have figured out what they like to do and what they don't like. Now that they're older they focus on just the stuff they like, and forget the stuff they don't like.

I've never liked swimming. I don't like water in my face in up my nose, or the taste of chlorine. I don't like wearing a swimsuit. I don't like the fear I get that I could drown in five feet of water. I don't like that I can't wear my heart rate monitor or my iPod. I don't like the silence. I don't like other people in the water with me. I don't like that it's so hard for me and that it hurts. I don't like it that I don't like. Everyone loves swimming, right?

What do you think? Should I just forget about the swimming? Maybe I should try an aerobics class or something else? My gym has spinning classes, but only at noon, so that's not an option. In my twenties aerobics was all the rage, high impact aerobics. Remember "no pain, no gain"? I must have heard that a hundred times in all those stupid step aerobic classes I took in the 80's.

I really need to do something different. The gym with it's daily grind is losing it's charm. I go, but I don't go enthusiastically. At least not lately. Maybe when and if it ever stops raining around here in this hell hole called the Pacific Northwest, I can get back to riding my bike. I just need something new, but maybe not swimming.