Failure to Launch

Yesterday was one of those days that never *quite* gets off the ground. Well, except for swim practice - that definitely got off the ground. I've gotten to the point where I just do what Andrew says without a lot of thought (because honestly, thinking about it doesn't make it any easier.) And then at the end of practice he says that was 3800 yards.

Me swimming 3800 yards is the equivalent of Michael Phelps swimming 3 times around the earth. Inconceivable. But still it totally rocked - and today my lats are sore, which I think is a good thing for swimming. And also, I had a total 1990 flashback.

In 1990 I was running hurdles on my high school track team, and I loved it. I was the kid that made it a point of pride to never, ever complain. If the coach told me to run 400s until I fell over, then that was exactly what I did. I subsequently lost my blind faith in coaches, but that's sort of another story. In 1990 I was still all about doing whatever I was supposed to do, and wasn't satisfied unless I felt like I had done it pretty much as well as I could.

So towards the end of swim practice yesterday we were swimming 100s with fins, and I had been swimming in the 1:05-1:06 range (which for me is jet propelled), and Andrew tells me to try to swim the last one under 1:05. And I suppose I didn't exactly kill myself, and also I was dying from the previous 11 100s we had just done, but when I came in at 1:08 I wasn't all that happy. So I kind of stewed over it while I listened to our cool down, and then I pulled my fins back on and said I'm going to do another 100 or that's going to bug me all day. My lane mate clearly thought I was insane and deserted the field. Andrew seemed kind of cracked up. But off I went, and did a 1:03, and it was the highlight of my day. It was like an old friend came back from 20 years ago. Ok yes, she's kind of a head case, but really, we don't hold that against people.

Why was that the highlight of my day? Because everything else pretty much went like that last slow 100. Kind of ok but not quite. I've had this master plan to approach a few stores about wholesaling candles, but yesterday I realized I've got to take a good hard look at how many pressed flowers I've got to get me through the winter. Not sure it's enough. It's possible I could supplement with purchased pressed flowers - but I've got to think on that one. And I meant to do yoga and never quite got it done. And Sam's swim practice that's supposed to be 45 minutes long ended up being an hour and half, making it a late night home for him, not to mention I thought the poor kid was going to drown during the doggy-paddle relay. (Although the swim coach gets major points for even conceiving a doggy-paddle relay - how fun is that - but unfortunately Sam started swimming in a swim class, and never learned to do the doggy paddle. Which was very apparent during the relay.)

So it certainly wasn't a terrible day - just one of those where everything is slightly off-kilter. And let's face it, I didn't sleep all that well the night before and then was up at 5:00 and swam my ass off for an hour and half to start the day. Which probably didn't leave me in the perkiest frame of mind anyway. Today, on the other hand is already starting out better - a short run in the rain is just enough to wake me up, not enough to leave me pooped. And I just downloaded another yoga class from yogadownloads and am off to the mat. Party on, Wednesday.