December 2005 Archives

"SKiPS 200s" That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. A 200 each of swim, kick, pull and a final swim. Those words meant, and still mean, only one thing. It meant the last practice of our high school season; the end of taper and the last day before your shave and taper meet. It didn't matter whether you were going to the JV invite or to State. You were done. Months and months of sets, turns and meets were over. SKiPS 200s marked the end of a lot of work. That set remains the most revered amongst all others.

I started of my workout with a SKiPS 200s last night. (I added some more sets for a nice 1,950 yard workout.) The thrill of an upcoming meet is back. I'm enjoying being able to compete. (If not with the young kids, at least I can compete against myself.) Last year, I set a standard in the 500 free at 5:48. This year, I plan on bettering that time, and if I do, I hope to continue to drop time in coming years.

I can feel a bit of a nervous, excited energy today. Until last year, I was nervous that everyone was laughing at my gut. Now the pre-race jitters are welcome. It will help to keep me focused. Ya know? There might be something to this whole training and competing thing.

The plow scraping the pavement this morning woke me. Snow was forecast, but if the plows were already out before 6, that meant we got too much for me to get to the pool. Almost instantly, my body tried to convince me not to go.

"Come on...It's one day...The snows too deep. You'll never get there."

Now the alarm was going off. Disarming it, I looked out the window to check on the snow. Clear pavement. Damn, those trucks are good. The mind took over and told what the body to do:

"Hey, we've got an Alumni Swim meet in a week. You can't sleep! Let's skip the snooze and get ready so we have enough time to brush the snow off the car."

Finding the motivation has been difficult in this infant second season. The mornings are dark. The days are short. The weather is cold. All contribute to indoor, monotonous, tedious training sessions. Part of the challenge of the race is not the race itself, but all the effort that goes into getting to the starting line.