Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Much Needed Perspective

This forced "down time" has been the best thing that's ever happened to me, athletically speaking that is. Bottom line: Until now, I've been nothing more than a glorified duathlete. I've tried to go toe-to-toe with guys who have not only been swimming for the better part of their lives, but who routinely swam 4 - 5 x more than I did each week while holding down full cycling and run loads.

They deserved to beat me on race day.

Yes, until this past June I "didn't" have enough time to train like a real "pro" but I'll be honest in saying that I could have prioritized my swim training and done a lot more than I did. Let's face it: Unless you have a full time job AND kids, you really don't have an excuse. You can find the time. You can find the energy. You can make it happen.

Well, I didn't, and I routinely got my ass handed to me in the water as a result.

Training with Dan Warner and the North Shore Swim Club has been a very humbling, albeit successful experience. I've got 14 year old kids making me work like a dog and guys like super swimmer Craig Lewin, Kyle Misuraca and Liam O'Connell forcing me to speed up or risk getting run over.

In one month I've gone from struggling to hit small sets of 1:15s on 1:30 to sets like 6 x 400 on 6 min. @ sub 5 min. (that was tonight's main set!)

At the end of the day, it's always the same: If you want the results, you've got to do the work, and it's not going to be easy.

There are no shortcuts.

1 comment:

Liam O'Connell said...

yea dude. i still get that happy feeling like i did when i was 8 leaving the pool. but, i also get that horrible stomach ache of nerves like i did when i was 8 on the way in. haha!

you are doing awesome in the pool. this is huge. very excited here. now, maybe it will actually make sense that we come from fish city!