Monday I did something I've never done before in my whole life.

I tried to get faster.

Since winter I've been swimming "endurance" workouts, which are supposed to strengthen me and steady my pace, and "form" workouts, which are supposed to improve my strokes.  I have also had a "speed" workout ready to go, written in my little waterproof notebook, but up till now I've been kind of afraid to try it.  

For one thing, all the swimming stuff I read seemed to indicate that form was most important, and endurance next most important, and I only have time for two workouts per week.

For another, the speed workout is, well, sprints.  "Swim one length as fast as you can and then rest for 30-40 seconds.  Repeat."  Later, the same with two lengths.   The other workouts are vigorous but they don't make me push myself -- there's no "as ____ as you can" in them.   So they're relaxing at the same time.  Push myself to go fast?  When I was a kid I hated running.  Come to think of it, I still hate running.   I thought sprint-swimming would probably be as unpleasant as sprint-running.

For a third thing, it's not like I'm entering any races.  What's the point?

Anyway, on Monday I happened to have extra time for my work out, so it seemed like a good day to try something new.  I turned to the "1200 yd speed" page and got started.

Three 25-yard sprints into it, I thought:  This really, really sucks.  There is no way I am going to make it through 9 more of these, let alone 10 50-yard sprints.

Eight 25-yard sprints into it, I was huffing and puffing.  Thirty seconds' rest between sprints was starting to go by alarmingly fast.

After I finished the twelve 25-yard sprints, I looked at the clock.  Wow.  Speed drills take longer than the other kind, because of all the resting.  I would definitely not finish this workout in forty minutes.  Hurray! I thought.  I'll have to quit early!  And then I remembered that I chose this workout because today I happened to have extra time.   Darn it.

Two 50-yard sprints:  This really, really sucks.  There is no way I am going to make it through 9 more of these, let alone 200 yards of cool-down.

And it went on like that, and I hated every yard of it.  (Especially because I had to share the lane.  That always makes me really self-conscious.)  But at one point, I realized that I was swimming the last sprint.  

I swam 200 more yards, slowly, marveling.  Did I really just do that?  Did I really voluntarily keep doing these sprints, even though I really hated every minute of them?  

The workout took fifteen minutes longer, and it's true that I might not always have time to swim twelve hundred yards of it.  I might have to make my speed drills shorter than my other ones, at least till I actually get faster.   But I'm glad I finished it at least once.  I'm glad I won't be able to dismiss myself with "Oh, I could never swim the whole 1200 yards anyway."  

I still probably look like a doofus when I swim (although Mark claims I look like a real swimmer now), but... inside for sure, something is getting better at it.

Comments

[Linda]

very impressive!