June 3, 2008

Somewhere Between Love and Hate

Swimming. There are times I look forward to it so much I can think of nothing else than getting to the pool. Other times, it registers about as high as a root canal. Due to my unexpected cold, I have not been to the pool since last Thursday. So I went today, long overdue, and had expectations that I might have suddenly crossed that threshold I've been so desperately trying to cross.

While today was not a total loss, I have yet to reach that magical point where I'm feeling confident in my swimming. In fact, there were laps today that made me stop, grab the side of the pool, and utter how much I hate this. It's not that I hate swimming, but I hate being so inept at it. I get overwhelmed by the frustration and exhaustion sometimes (OK, often) and wonder if I'll ever get it. But other times, I absolutely love it. I feel free in the water and I always think about how I'm conquering something that I've wanted to do my entire life. Those are the days where I can barely wait to get to the pool and I don't care how much work it takes, I'm willing to keep trying over and over again.

Today's hate moments were perfectly balanced with love moments. I am definitely making incredible progress and am able to swim several comfortable laps punctuated by a few really botched attempts, but that's to be expected when you've only been to the pool about 10 times. I feel like I'm on the verge of that elusive breakthrough so I'm going to make my best effort to go as many consecutive days as possible this week in order to finally get there.

Tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m., I will be running in the New York Road Runner's Club Anniversary Run, a 5-miler in Central Park that will be finished before most people even get up for the day. It will likely be raining, but that won't spoil the fun of running in the park that early on a weekday. My plan is to do the race, then get to the pool early immediately after. It may take several coffees to achieve this, but I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

Sport - Swimming
Distance - I stopped counting
Time - 35:00

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