Sloane Brooks

Hi Finley. Did the same and it bit me. I was shuffling laps by the floodlights behind the soccer fields and realized my shoes were ancient and the cold concrete made everything ache, then a week later a physio told me my stride was too long. I cut the stride, replaced the shoes, and it calmed down after a few weeks.

Hey Everett, Evening itself isn't the villain. It's the heart-rate spikes and body heat right before lights out. Apartment gyms closing at 10 is goofy, but you can work around it. Cut anything explosive after 8:30, keep it around RPE 6-7, and stop sets a couple reps short of failure. Do 30 easy minutes or a calm strength session and long exhale breathing and a cool rinse after. Kill bright lights on the way home and keep the room cool.

After getting rolled by a shore break once and losing my bag, I got weirdly redundant about water. Go at staffed hours, tell the guard you're nervous, bring two goggles, and always have an exit plan (roll to back or grab the wall). Start with breath and floats until you can recover three times in a row without a spike of panic. Evening sessions are fine if you pick the quiet corner and treat every drill as 'do it, recover, do it again'.