Real Swimming.

It’s now been almost 3 weeks since I tore this calf muscle. The rehab has been slow but, finally I’m beginning to see some progress. The good thing is the amount of swimming I’ve been doing. I was swimming some masters workouts on Monday mornings over in Shaker. I quickly noticed that if I was paying 5 bucks a workout then I want something more than 4ooo yds. It was quickly apparent to me that this team was not for me. I think they have a motto over there ‘when the going gets tough, get out and say you’re late for work’ My last workout over there this guy named Chris came by. He mentioned that Solon had a good team. I shrugged it off and began our main set. This set ended with 6x100 on a 1:10. We were cruising these around 1:03-1:06. It felt real good to open it up a little. Since this guy was on me the entire time I decided to head over to Solon for a try. When I showed up last Tuesday I could see these guys were fit. They looked like swimmers. They talked like swimmers. And after the set, I knew these guys are swimmers. They all come from the same philosophy that I did. ‘Go hard or Go home’. The coach was immediately correcting my bad habits that the rec center had gifted me. The pool hovers around 74 degrees, and every set feels like a race. I didn’t think I was going to or needed to get much faster for tri. So I say this, why the hell not. I know I drop a 2.4 mile OWS in 54 minutes during IM. What if I got that down to 46 minutes? What if I qualify for short course nationals? What if I am a swimmer who cross trains tri? Maybe the change I’m looking for. Plus there’s something to be said about getting smoked by a 16 yr old girl…I am the slowest person in this pool. It’s awesome.
So I guess What I am getting at is that this calf injury was a blessing sort of. Everything was coming too easy for awhile. What’s easy about 7 hr workouts one may ask. Nothing, but anyone can move for 7 hrs. Moving fast is hard. Now I have to work to stand out in the pool. All this swimming is giving my calf the daily therapy it needs while my endurance is skyrocketing. Of course my ½ marathon time may increase 4 minutes, but if my swim decreases 6 what’s the difference right? It kills me that everyone is getting some monster workouts and races in. One of my biggest takeaways is that I am observing a huge layer of self control that will hopefully pay off in 2011.
Then there’s this other thing. A change that may take everything I know and shake it up like an etch-a-sketch. Something so big and so exciting. I feel like I’m looking down a tunnel, I can see some light at the end but, I have no idea how long it is. I do know that on the other side it is warm, and sunny, and different, and the roads are smooth and snow free. All I need to do is put one foot in front of the other and start walking through. Ready…Go.