All About Sweat (Day 87/88/89)

Wednesday: 4:30AM. Alarm goes off. I'm dreading it but I know once I'm up and in the crisp water it will be better. I'll be wide awake and feel refreshed as my body slips through the water like a knife.
5:00AM. I jump in. One hundred yards later I'm dying. What's happened? I've been swimming my entire life so even though I've been out of the water for a year my base is so deep I can usually jump right into it. Why is this year different? Is it because I psyched myself out or because of all the stress in my life? Probably both. Unfortunately, I gave up, I got out, I headed to the locker room upset with my failure. Washed the chlorine off my body and drove home. By 5:50 I was home, back in bed, trying to get a bit more sleep.

When I awoke I was still upset with myself for getting out. But I decided to not let my failure win. Friday I'd be back in and I would beat the water this time.

Thursday: I ran for the first time in almost a year today. I was running at the beginning of the school year but my hip started acting up again and I had to give it a rest. Then school picked up and I couldn't fit it into my schedule. But today I ran. Only 12 minutes, only a little over a mile, but I did it. And the thing was it felt great. Not really what I was expecting, running through the Texas heat and the Carrollton hills (yes we actually have hills in my neighborhood). Whatever it was that made it enjoyable gave me a new spirit to swim on Friday and to keep my running up. I'm afraid to tell everyone this, but when I first started running my sophomore year I told myself I would run a marathon at least once after I graduated. Well, I graduate in July so I guess I better start training, slowly but surely. This run was what I needed to believe I could actually do it.

Friday: 4:30AM again. Back in the water that brings goosebumps to my skin by 5:00. But this time I didn't get out at 5:30, I got out at 6:30. That's because I finished the workout. I felt it in my muscles; that feeling of strength, of actual pull through the water. My lungs weren't searching for the oxygen when I turned my head to breathe. I won't call today easy but it wasn't unbearable. It was a good feeling being back in what I consider more of my natural element.

And the best blessing from the last three days is my entire body is sore which is one of my most favorite feelings in the world!