The End of the Streak

The insanely great swimming streak has finally ended. At least temporarily. The streak where I was seeing times I hadn't seen in years came to a crashing halt this morning.

Our 90 minute swim turned into a 30 minute swim as Coach was held up due to a car accident on the 590 blocking traffic. When we did finally enter the water I should have known something was up when Grimm was in first.

"Hell has frozen over." my teammate Bill said to me as Grimm rips off a 25 fly. Not only is Grimm typically last in the water, a 25 fly for warm up?

"The loser is even wearing his Ironman Hawaii swim cap still." I said, and as soon as I said it, I realized it. Everyone was looking at my damn head with my Ironman Lake Placid cap on. "At least his is Hawaii..." I smiled.

Into the pool things didn't get much better for me. During a kick set I set myself up by putting on fins when we weren't supposed to. Not only that I put on one of mine and one of Bill M's. Which would have been fine except mine are red and his are blue. Which Grimm and gang spent a good chunk of time helping me determine. I learned that blue and red are not the same color, even when wiggling in front of your face.

Pulling a 500 might be my favorite thing on earth, but not when my trusty paddles have a loose strap. After missing a 100 trying to embroider it back in I threw the paddles on, minus the strap and swam anyways.

Grimm hasn't lapped me in a 500 in a while, yet today he did. When they lap me I don't hang at the wall. I flip turn then wrap my legs around the lane line.... so I am under it hugging it, and then I miss the wall completely. Which is awesome when you are pulling and your lane is kicking your ass.

To make things worse our final set was 10 X 50 on :40. I make this set all the time. I thought I was making it today.... but apparently not as Ken caught me. Ken was leading and I was caboose-ing, and apparently too well.

Who gets caught on a 50?

When 7am finally arrived I was glad. Hell was I glad. But I was smiling. My flapping toenails and crappy swim and all... I was still smiling.

You have days like these. Sometimes you have weeks like these. Power Meters fail, times get missed, you even forget your towel at the pool.

That's part of the journey. Dealing with the stupids, the brainlessness, and still enjoying the experience.

Now on Friday I will be first in the water. But I am not ripping out a 25 fly. Not for the first lap!

And I might have my Ironman Florida cap on this time.

:-) Mary