Fear as a Motivator

Okay this sounds really dumb but I swear when I signed up for the Luray Olympic, the site said the swim was 750 meters. Yes I know that's not standard, but I was in denial and thought it was cool. This week, I noticed that there has been a slight change to the site, correcting the swim to 1500 meters.

Gulp.

Consider exhibit A: TriDi who has not gotten her butt in the water for a good 5 weeks. Who is scared that swimming will hurt her still-recovering broken finger. Who doesn't swim well or much in a good week.

Yeah, I'm in trouble.

I finally did some laps on Wednesday - a measly 1000 which felt terrible. I was scared enough to swim again today. Yes friends you read that correctly - I swam twice in one week!!! Please hold your applause... at least until you see me and I can bask in the glory.

Not so glorious?

Today I was determined to do a real workout. I decided upon descending distance sets of 600, 500, 400, 300, 200 plus a 100 meter warm up and cool down for a total of 2200. At about the 800 meter point, I started remembering how to swim and it started feeling pretty good. I was gliding, rotating, and breathing fairly well. Ahhh, this is how it's supposed to feel! By about 1800 meters, I was tired and struggling again but at least I was at the shorter sets so I made it through, concentrating on form. My cool down was probably the slowest 100 every recorded, and then I was done. Yeah!!!!

I have my work cut out for me over the next few weeks to adequately prepare for a non-stop 1500 meter swim. And did I mention that I've never done an open water swim before?

I'm scared, but if I keep working hard, I just may be able to pull this thing off.

At least that's what I'm telling myself.