Wednesday Morning Swim......

Wednesday September 20, 2006

5:00 am came very early this morning…. I pulled my self upright and swung my size 12’s over the edge of the bed. Reached to my right and grabbed the ever present glass of water from the side of my bed…. Thinking… “I knew I should have gone to bed earlier, My eyes are burning (symptom of not enough sleep and too much contact wearing), my shoulder is still sore from yesterday nights lifting extravaganza…(which crack head let me lift arms, shoulders, and back on a day before I swim), and I should probably open my eyes about now…“ all at the same time…. as I took a drink of the water. Finished the water and said to myself "You shouldn’t swim, your shoulder’s going to hurt really bad…. that’s it that’s the excuse you’ll use, your shoulder". I laid back down… 4 minutes later the alarm that I had snoozed went off again. I opened my eyes stood up and started to put my suits on in the dark. I grabbed my bag which I had already packed which had my shorts a pair of sweat pants and sweat shirt in it. I walked out to my dining room, on the cold hard wood floors, I shivered a bit as I put my pants and sweat shirt thinking "I should have closed the windows last night, it's starting to get cold out, Where are my flip flps?". It’s a little lighter in here than my room, the blinds let in a bit more light from the street lights out front and the neighbors outside lights that happened to be on at this time. I cut a bagel in half and put it in the toaster. I went back into my room and grabbed my other bag that was pre-packed with some of my clothes for work, shoes, and shaving kit, as well as my work clothes hanging on the door, my dress pants and dress shirt, just then my bagel popped up out of the toaster. I grabbed the light turkey out of the refrigerator and one slice of fat free cheddar cheese. I made a bagel sandwich and stuck it in the microwave for 20 seconds to melt the cheese (which I’m afraid might not actually be cheese). I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and put in my contacts…damn it that burns!... I hate putting these things in all the time. I need to get glasses again…. so I can wear them from time to time…. Ok. I grabed my bagel out of the nuker and grab my bags, my clothes, my bagel and my bottle of water which I poured last night and left on the counter so I would remember to take it today. I pulled up to Chester and parked the car. I got out fed the meter and as I started walking in…. JT’s smiling face was there to great me on the dark sidewalk ouside of the athletic building… and drop a sarcastic hello….and it went something like this…”I’m glad to see you…. I was getting ready to send you a nasty e-mail if you didn’t show up today”…. yeah so by now you've read between the lines…. yeah… I Fell off the wagon… haven’t been to swimming practice since last Wednesday. So after this mornings rise and shine thoughts, I’m feeling a bit hesitant about getting to the water. So we walk up the back door… the only way in now since the place has turned into fort knox. Into the Locker room and to change......

When I get back out from the locker room, JT’s talking to a guy that she knows from another swim place, and the coach is writing the workout on the board. Starts with a couple of hundred meters warm up, so we jump in and we’re off. The last part of the warm up was a kick set… well.. I’m not the fastest kicker, nor do I use flippers… so needless to say I was the last one in. Everyone was reading the workout and then talking as I came to the wall. And then it came… JT says… "We voted… You’re going first”. Why do they do this to me? My shoulder hurts from lifting I’ve not been to swimming in a week… Oh well, quite your bitching… put your goggles on lazy….then “we’re going to let you pick the start time though….”, “oh thanks” I say, and “we’re going on the top”. Being Stroke day at the US Master Swim Club Practice, I will have to do back stroke which has been hurting my shoulder a lot, since it puts me into a position that risks dislocating it again, I worry, we also do a lot butterfly. Butterfly for those of you who don’t swim or haven’t ever done butterfly it’s the perfect hybrid of a finesse stroke and POWER Stroke. You not only have to muscle yourself out of the water to breath, BUT to do that you need to get your body in the right position for when you kick, and if you don’t keep a “tempo” to your stroke you can’t continue to do butterfly for a very long distance. You can purely “muscle” your way through maybe 3 or 4 strokes of butterfly, but anything past that you need the tempo / finesse part otherwise you’re drinking A LOT of water. So that’s always fun on a tired body…. SO anyway… Practice ended up good. I pushed hard to keep ahead of everyone, and am still trying to figure out why they think I should lead the lane… but that’s a discussion for Friday I guess.

Keep yourself movin Cleveland
See you out there!