searching

At some point in my puppy training of Cocoa things got backwards. Somewhere the signals for "go do your business outside" became "Crap on the rug at all times, even after you have been outside for 20 minutes."

But that's how things go I suppose.

There are only certain people who will text me before 5am, and those are either people I coach or train with. everyone knows I am up. Amy typically send me something about 4:30. Kim will check in to see that I'm on the way to the pool, Sarah will text me anytime.... and then there's Bill.

Somehow he knew one of my headlights was out, he's my neighbor too so I suppose we passed at some point around 5:30am today.

"Have a good swim." It read after my headlight alert (I have already been pulled over a few times for this, being a nurse gets you out of things like that....).

I was feeling good this morning. It has been a bit of a long week with Winter Break and a lot of homework and desk work to do. My big training days are Thursday through Sunday. I am rested and I have the time.

I needed a word to describe how I was feeling this morning. A little like I could go get it, turn it on, grab for something. I love those days when I roll down the road towards the pool and I can't wait to get in.

So I borrowed an old saying form the ELF. I haven't heard her speak of him in a while, and I am hoping she soon will..... it fires me up. So I am borrowing it. Because it comes with good Karma.

I told Bill I was ready to see the wizard this morning. And I was.

It's been a very long time since I have been ready to make the reach. And as I continue this journey through self coaching I am really learning and seeing where my health began to fall apart last season. As the various illness and issues occurred I clearly didn't give myself time to recover from them. I kept trying to make it up. In a race, in a time..... and what I needed to do was chill out.

Us type A people run that risk however.

As I stood on the deck I got trapped in the Grimm wed. Erik stands on the side of the pool for a good 20 minutes before he ever gets in. The joke / rule is that you have to get in before he arrives or you will get stuck talking to him. It's easy because you get to hear wild tales of skiing hut to hut, or sleeping naked in sleeping bags on the cliffs of New Zealand. It's a good story.

I got stuck for a bit and then I got in. A few recent stroke changes and I was feeling good. Hungry.

However..... I didn't see the wizard this morning. I got close, but I didn't see him.

We had 4 X 300's broken this am. 200 moderate / 100 breathing to the non dominant side. Intervals that I could easily make. Today was not about making intervals, today was about nailing intervals.

Throughout a 200 I might or might not get lapped by Grimm. Sometimes I can hold him off for 300, 400 if he's dead tired. Today he got close but he didn't catch me.

However more than swimming from Grimm I swim who is next to me. Depending on the day I can hang with Kim or at her hips. Usually I am cheering Kim on mentally. GO GO GO! (heck, I coach her.....) Depending on the day I can do the same with Rauni. More often than not I can just hang on Les.

During the set he was next to me and I was pulling ahead. We worked together and I felt as if he was saying to me turn it on butt (my nickname is PowerButt). So I kicked and I put my head down and I hit those intervals with plenty of time to spare instead of the take-a-breath-and-go.

But I did not see the Wizard.

I kept true to my promise to Ken that I would lead at least one set per practice even if it meant wearing fins. The 12 X 75 lined me up with Travis, I am thinking my fins annoy him..... but so did my random intervals on Wednesday. The ones where I led the set with fins and sometimes went on the 48, the 52, the 53, the 49....... I called it "Whenever Travis hits the wall behind me and the next 5 seconds started intervals". Hey, it isn't like you can plan a race! You have to react to what happens around you!

Nonetheless I swam with my fins and with fins I was able to touch the wall first. But then again the object of the set was not to race but breath control.... and it is unfair to cry "WINNER" to a race that only I am racing.... with fins.

But I will anyways. I gotta take what I can get.

So I didn't see the wizard like I had intended. But he's getting closer.

I am getting closer.

In just 6 weeks i will be in new Orleans waking up my racing self. New Orleans will not be an A race, my A races are in July and November. I am traveling all that way for a B race? Oh hell yes. I am in need of sunshine. I am in need of saltwater. While I aim for a 5 hour race I want to test all this good nutrition, and self coaching out. I want to get outside and blow off the engines a bit. I want to race healthy, see how I do, and then create the plan for the Musselman.

All along the way I will be searching for that blue robed guy. When I find him.... he's mine. Thanks Liz for giving me such a powerful visual!