November 13, 2007

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

It’s 5 pm, and I’m planning to swim at four seasons tonight. I’m intrigued by the saline purification system, can’t wait to check it out. Chlorinated fresh water is incredibly harsh on the sinuses. I hope I go.

Made it. Nice pool. No people, cooler water for real workouts, and the saline rocks. No chlorine burn, no irritated sinuses. 28 minutes away. I can definitely swim here. 36 bucks/month.

Swam 1 mile in 34 minutes. Took a split at 800 m (17:30). Great. An easy negative split and I can get under 35 minutes. So I smoothed things out a little and got to 1600 in 33:41. What the hell, I thought, might as well get the last 9 meters done as long as I’ve got 19 seconds left.

As I mentioned earlier, I usually don’t count laps – an artifact from having done so much open water swimming, in part. But I’ll do it now. Quantify, quantify, quantify. I remember back in the day doing serious pool workouts with some hardcore swimmers in the early ‘80’s, pretty much cruising along at 25-27 minutes/mile for 3-4 miles. I can see doing 2 miles in an hour before too long.

I’m terrified.

Absolutely terrified that I’ll go right back to my sedentary, decadent ways, and that this “comeback” will end like all the others, with a long string of DNR’s. It’s been so long, and my bad habits have become deeply ingrained. Realistically, I’ve got no chance.

Nevertheless …