Giving It A Tri

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Inspiration from Calvin Coolidge

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race."
--Calvin Coolidge

I have another spin class tonight. After the long swim this morning, I don't know if I can do the whole thing. I will just have to keep telling my self to "press on" . . .

I swam 2000 meters this morning. That is one and a quarter miles! Incredible. It started out pretty rocky. It has been over a week since I last did laps, and I could really feel my legs sinking, so the whole time I was focusing on my balance. When I started the pool was empty, but about 20 minutes into the swim the pool started to get crowded and two dog-paddlers joined the lane I was sharing with another lap swimmer. That is such a pain. There are three lanes in the pool. The far right lane is filled (and I mean filled) with old ladies supposedly doing aqua jogging, but mostly just socializing. The middle lane is supposed to be for slower swimmers doing a slow breast stroke or dogpaddling. And the last lane would theoretically be left for lap swimmers. Instead the left two lanes get a mixture of folks doing all kinds of things, and I spend most of the time trying to dodge other swimmers. But I did stay for an hour and things started to thin out. I got in about 8 laps of sprints. I would just go as fast as I could for a lap, rest for thirty seconds and then repeat. While sprinting, I was faster than expected, but I also got incredibly winded. Part of the problem, is that I forget to breathe and just hold my breath most of the way. Not a good idea.