Did you hear the one about the man that ran out of the courtroom trying to escape judgment? He jumped into a river and drowned.

That really happened a month ago in Florida.

The moral of the story? Either, you can’t run away from the long arm of the law, or. . . you should really learn how to swim.

prolly both

It seems longer. . .

More challenges to getting to the pool this week almost convinced me to forget it altogether.  I mean, it’s gotten colder outside, we’re getting up an out later these days, etc.  Cry me a river.  I put the baby back in the crib at 5:30, told my son to listen for her, and took myself to the pool.

I got in and swam a 25 before I checked my watch.  It was 5:54 when I finished my first length.  My strategy today was to swim 1700 yards with as much freestyle as possible.  So. . . I started with breast stroke!  Go me!

The pool was full when I got there, so I found myself swimming down the middle of the slow lane between an older man and a woman.  I got distracted by trying to swim faster than the woman, and I failed miserably.  The man got out of the pool pretty soon, and by the time I was swimming my second IM or so, I noticed I was the only person in the pool.

That was short-lived.  Three young people (swim team kids) started training, and the other lanes filled up as well.  I missed my chance to change lanes–something I used to do a lot when I first started swimming.

I was tired and almost sore starting out.  Did that have to do with the fact that I’d done Tae Bo three times this week?  hmm?  And I finished my second week of the 200 sit-up challenge this week?  (btw, ’2 weeks’ on that challenge has actually taken me 4 weeks to finish, so boo me)

I don’t know, but that might have had something to do with  my muscle fatigue.  I pushed through it, though, thinking of  Dori’s mantra:  (from Finding Nemo):  ‘keep swimming!’

My IM times were more consistent, if unspectacular:  2.53.20, 2.55.88, 2.53.36, and 2.55.20.  My sluggishness showed, I think in those times.

I was at the 1000 yard mark when I finished the IMs.  The rest of the workout consisted of my trying to gain yardage without a lot of elementary back stroke, my relaxing, cooldown type stroke.  I was pretty successful, only adding 50 more elementary back stroke out of 700 yards.

I found a better way to look at swimming freestyle, too.  I concentrated on blowing the air out of my mouth, rather than my nose, and I had an easier time.  I have a hard time trying to work the breathing out of my mouth and blowing out of my nose rhythm every three strokes.  I don’t know.  Must be me.  I’m also working on improving my arm movement during the breast stroke.  I’m sure I have way too much wasted movement there.  It’s fun to refine strokes in the midst of trying to get something done.

In the end, it was 7:02.  I’d swum 1700 yards, and my shoulders and triceps were sore.  I plan to swim again next week.  Goal:  1800 yards, 1 mile!

It’s been challenging to get to the pool this week.  Mondays are always out. On Tuesday, I knew I was going grocery shopping and didn’t want to do that with wet hair.  Yesterday I got rolling too late to make it to the pool.  My hair appointment’s today, so it was today or not at all for two more weeks.

I got going at a decent hour, and made it to the pool around 5:40 A.M.  The road was blocked.  No problem, I thought.  I drove around the back way.  The parking lot was pretty empty, and a woman looked at me as she got in her car.  “The water main broke,” I heard her tell someone else when I opened my car door.  “So the Y’s closed?” I asked.  “Well, yeah, ” she said, surprised at my bluntness.

It was still early.  I decided to drive across town to the other Y.  I got there at 6.  Every lane was occupied, but a man told me he was finishing up when I entered the pool area.  I thanked him and started swimming.  He was done before I finished my first lap.

I had the goal of increasing my freestyle in mind, along with the idea that maybe I should warm up doing a stroke other than freestyle.  I started out with breast stroke, then back stroke, then freestyle.  The freestyle still wiped me out!  I ended up taking a panting break in the middle of my 100 free, feeling like a big wimp.

I knew I wanted to increase my freestyle yardage, but I also wanted to swim my usual 4 100 IMs and time them, so I decided to add the freestyle to the back end of the set, after the IMs.  My times were:  2:55.29, 2:49.14, 2:51.56, and 2:58.61.  Nothing spectacular, compared with the last time I swam, but the real significance of this workout was getting through it.  I was beat.  That may have to do with the fact that the baby woke up three times in the night, most recently at 3:45, and I didn’t go back to sleep after that time.

In the end,  I swam more elementary back stroke than anything else, boo for me!  I swam the same 400 freestyle yards that I had last time, and actually decreased my yardage in back and breast strokes.  And I swam 1600 total yards, just like last time, forgetting that I was supposed to swim 1700.

Was it worth it, even will all these missteps?  You bet.  My message this week?  Just get to the pool.

Stephani came up to me after church one Sunday.  “I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” she said.  “I found out that the local triathlons take joint entries.  I was thinking that you could do the swimming part and I could do the rest.”

I have been entranced by triathlons ever since I first saw them on TV back when I was a lazy teenager.  I knew I would one day grow up to be some workout fanatic, and . . . dreamy-eyed look on my face, trailing off. ..

I never dreamed that triathlons are actually done by normal people.

A few years ago, I met a woman at the kids’ swimming who had actually done a small triathlon.  After I got over idolizing her, I thought, I want to do that!

Then I noticed that the Y was offering a triathlon style workout.  I was still too insecure about my swimming to join the class, but one Saturday, I dragged my daughter in with me to try our own version.  We did it backwards.  We ran on the treadmill for 1/2 hour, then rode the stationary bikes for 1/2 hour, then swam for 1/2 hour.  This was at the height of my fitness before babies #6 an 7, so it was great fun.  I think I ended up swimming 500 yards during that session.

So I’ve been off and on haunting local triathlon websites, thinking ‘one of these days’ I’ll be in shape enough to enter.  Then Stephani and I talked about how fun it would be to do one one of these days.  Now she’s serious.  And I can’t swim much straight freestyle.

Yup.  It’s time to fish or cut bait.  I think I will focus on freestyle the next time I hit the pool, which should be tomorrow.  I’ll let you know how that turns out.