October 2011

Enter the Kraken

It is well known that heat makes people tired. Well at least in my experience. I one time went to go swimming and figured I would warm up my muscles in the hot tub by the side of the pool. That was not my brightest idea. I was so drained after it and had no energy to swim that I just showered up and drove my relaxed butt to work. It’s hard to go from relaxed to jumping in the refreshing pool and swimming laps. So now I only go in the hot tub after my swim. Call it a reward.
I accomplished my goal of swimming 100 miles this year on September 14, 2011. “Open the Kraken.” One thing I learned from all this training is the blue line at the bottom of the pool does not change color no matter how much I wanted it to at times. As monotonous as lap swimming may appear to be you would be surprised how quickly it goes when you get lost in your own thoughts.
My mind jumps around a lot. Some examples of what it goes through are; what lap number is this?, what am I going to eat after this?, what do I need to get done today?, among many other things. I’ve learned to designate certain one hundred meters as pure focus intervals where I try not to think about anything except the act of swimming. I usually repeat a montra or count my strokes. One, two, three, breath, one, two, three, breath. I would be good at giving birth… on second thought maybe I would rather just teach lamas class. Another thing I discovered in the pool is flow. That feeling of effortless, flawless swimming where it feels like it could be a dream. It doesn’t happen to often but when it does, it is unmistakable. All in all I feel this personal swim goal of mine was a positive, rejunvinating, revitalizing, and refreshing (especially on those cold winter mornings when I almost literally had to have Ed the lifeguard throw me in the pool) experience. The Kraken rum I have been saving didn’t carry as much weight as it did in the beginning. The reward seems to have been the journey and personal learning experience that came from the effort involved. The journey was the goal as well as the reward and I will hopefully reach or dare I try exceed the length next year. Maybe try the breast, back or butterfly a bit more. Maybe 125 – 150 miles. Just going to have to see.
Taking things one stroke at a time-
-Barton-