miler

so i went swimming today. set up my little counting bouy at the end of the lane. each time down the lane i would move it to the right one foot. it takes 7 laps to get to the end. i dont double the right end and then there are 6 to get back making a total of 13 laps. my previous best was 8 laps and i didnt feel like i pushed myself too hard doing it. so today i decided to do 13. a down and back on the bouy marker. this is also just a touch under a half mile (about 14 yards short). when i started i looked at the clock so i could have a half mile distance time. the first quarter mile went pretty well. mostly i was just trying to not think about how far i was going to go. as i was finishing the second quarter i doing the math in my head how much farther a mile would be. which is pretty easy actually. 2x farther. plus one more length. but i rounded it up to one more lap.

so about 80% of the way through my half mile, and feeling pretty good i decided to double it and do a mile.

which i did.

the only tough time came on the second to last lap. for the last 10 laps or so all i had in my head was to finish the mile. and more and more thinking got me to where i started worrying about the last lap. what if i blew up on the last lap?? cramps?!?!? lungs full of water? dead tired!!! eeeek!

well, the second to last lap i had just the slightest panic attack and had to back off a bit. i spent the lap trying to do some tricky math problem i have been stuck on for about 1/2 year. no luck on the problem, but i almost crushed my head in at the end of the pool. :-) was a great relaxing moment. swimming i think gives me time to think about other stuff. which is pretty good. on the bike i just love what i am doing most of the time - so i dont want to think about other things. on the running i dont like what is going on in my body so i dont like being distracted from trying to keep myself together. but swimming seems to give me some amount of area to think on other stuff.

the last lap was pretty heady. just grinning in the water and a sprint on the last length.

wasnt out of breath - any more than normal that is. and my arms felt tired but not dead. i might have been able to do another mile - but thats for another month ( or day ). so i cruised up to the end of the lane and checked out the pool clock. 44:30! just what i had predicted a few days ago. actually the 30 seconds is a bit longer than i predicted but i did swim an extra length. so that must be worth the 30 seconds. so i will go with 44 minutes for a mile.

first time ever over a quarter mile. wow. :-) i am really happy right now.

someday when things suck i am going to have to read back on the entries for the last month - its been so very positive lately.

so i sat on the side of the pool and of course in one of those incredible moments of my life the next song i heard was Jackson Brown's Running on Empty. this is my all time favorite song to run to. i dont think i have done a run in the last 10 years where i haven't heard that song in my head. its about the only song i ever hum to as i run. just for a minute - its not like i have the thing on repeat for 3 hours.!

but there it was playing... seemed fitting since i just swam my first ever focking mile!!!