Hat Trick

These are the practice ski jumps in Lake Placid.

I had a great week of swimming. It's been a long time since I took the reach in the pool. As I said before I got really complacent. Heck I was a college swimmer I swim an Ironman swim in under an hour..... it's a comfortable place to be.

Then you know what happened on Monday..... happened again on Wednesday.... and then again this morning. Bree left me a comment that she wished she was swimming 300's with me, so this morning on a set of.... heck I don't remember..... I wished I was swimming with her. I know she'd be laughing. I know she'd be smiling. And I knew I'd be smiling too.

Good thoughts.

I am in the middle of a 27 hour training week. Today we are headed to the mountains of Lake Placid for camp. By the time I arrived on deck at 5:45 I felt like my already low IQ had dropped a few more points since yesterday. That's what happens when I train high volume. I get even stupider.

Which it scary of you know me.

In high volume weeks it's hard to balance nutrition. You are rolling over volume from day to day and the normal calories don't suffice. So when I stood on deck this am on a power bar for fuel, feeling like I was three feet under.... I knew there would be trouble.

And so we began. We swam and we swam hard. One of my favorite lane mates Ken, was cheering me on. He made me go in front of him on a set of 50's I was not sure I would make. I kept my head down and kicked my ass off. I made them.

In front of me on the next set..... can't remember that now either.... he must have known I was seeing the damn wizard (thank you Elizabeth for that term...) because he cheered me on again.

It worked.

The last few minutes of practice the walls began to close in. Stars were appearing in my Swedish goggles. I was bonking, in the pool... a 90 minute swim! I laughed. I tried one more 200. Five minutes left. Do I reach or do I play it safe? I stopped. I got out of the pool and my legs were weak. I smiled. I haven't had weak legs from swimming in ages.

Excitement filled me.

As well as some nervousness. I am feeling this way on the day I am headed to Placid.... and I have a great big training weekend ahead.

If you've never been to Lake placid you need to place it on your "bucket list". It's about wellness. It's about athletes. It's about everything good in our lives. We've rented just about an entire hotel. Much of the team is coming. We have dinner scheduled tonight at 8pm.

Weekends like this are so important in terms of taking the reach. Getting out of daily life and making a break though. Fitness boosts are made for sure. But more importantly we learn how to make that reach. We learn to step to that edge and at least look over the cliff.

I very may well fall off the damn cliff. But I know when I come back again I will be better for it!