A few weeks ago and what should have been running into the “home stretch” of my 500 miles goal, I hit a wall where I became really unmotivated and almost disinterested in swimming. I kind of used my excuse of hosting dinner for 20 people to why I only swam twice that week. My heart really wasn’t into it though as if I wanted to swim, I’d have made it happen one way or another, dinner or no dinner. I’d say that I was going swimming the next morning as I’d be geared for it at night, and then when my alarm went off at 4:30 AM, I would just lie there in bed and come up with some reason to not go. It was weird and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I wanted to hit the 500 miles mark and didn’t want to do the work for it.
I am very fortunate though to have two amazing women in my life: Janet Manning and Carol Schumacher Hayden. Janet’s been a great friend and supporter for about the last year. I recently met Carol on an Oak Street swim in August. Talking with them helped reinvigorate my interest in swimming. Janet told me to start taking it easier as I wouldn’t be getting a prettier suit by reaching the 500 miles milestone any sooner. Carol just swims for fun and reminded me to just do it for the love of it and not think about my goals so much. I talked with Carol a lot about my emotional state and even though she’s been happily married for several years, it was nice to be reminded also that I’m not alone in the way that I feel about a lot of things in life (as she said she knows several women with the same complaints as me for instance). I was able to recollect myself and push on towards my 500 miles goal. It won’t be happening as fast as I first (or second or third) wanted it to and it is going to happen though. I’m less than 25 miles away from it right now and should be reaching it in the later half of next week.
I’ve also had some challenging swims lately and have taken a new approach to those challenges. In one instance, I tried to switch to a new pair of goggles that kept leaking and wouldn’t fit right. During one double workout day, I decided that I could either ditch this workout after 1300 yards when I had come there to do 5000 yards and be pissy about it all night or I could march back into the locker room, get another pair of goggles, and finish this blasted workout. I chose to go get another pair of goggles. I came out with my old pair and another spare pair as one of those should work to keep the water out of my eyes. It turns out that extra spare pair fit my eyes very comfortably! I finished the workout, which was my second workout for the day. 🙂 In another instance, a jackass kicked me square in the face while passing me. WTF? He didn’t stop or acknowledge in any way, shape, or form that he had kicked me. I even tried to flag him down afterwards and he just ignored me and kept going. The Masters coach on deck and the lifeguard didn’t do anything!! This would have never happened in my home pool at SMAC. RBAC really is pretty ghetto in comparison especially when it comes to the safety of their guests. Again, I could have called off my workout and let it ruin my day. Instead, I jumped into the other lane and bitched about it to a friend / lanemate of mine who made me laugh about it when he offered to beat the guy up for me. I was doing backstroke during my last set and while listening to Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World”, I saw two of the Pasadena Parrots fly overheard. Pretty cool! It was an experience that I would have missed if I had let the earlier incident ruin my swim and possibly set the tone for the rest of my day. It’s a work in progress and I really am learning that my day can be whatever I make of it. If I decide that I’m going to have a good day and be happy, then I have a good day and am happy. We have a choice to be happy or be miserable though.
Looking forward to hitting the 500 miles mark next week as then I’m going to take some time off from swimming. It’ll be nice to get a break and I’ll have my mom, my cousin Monica, and her fiancee visiting over Christmas time. My break will only be about a week or so and I am looking forward to it, especially since it’s been pretty cold outside. Of course it being in the 30s has never stopped me from putting my swimsuit on and heading towards the pool. At least the pool is heated. 🙂
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