Friday, February 15, 2008

Friday, February 15, 2008
What a week. My school’s Principal’s father died Saturday. My landlord/neighbor died Sunday. On Monday, at school, things turned much worse. Pat’s dad, Lew and those around them had been on their particular road awhile, knew what was ahead, and dealt with it calmly and rationally. Lew in particularly is an inspiration to me, for the way he never seemed to let his inexorable decline affect his life. So Monday I have lunch duty (7th/8th grade). On of my 8th grade students comes up to me in the middle of lunch and says her dad is her, can she go out to see him (you can see the reception area from the caf)? I say “sure” and she goes out, then comes back a minute later and says she’s being dismissed. I tell her “I hope everything is alright.” She leaves, lunch ends, and we all go back to the afternoon classes. A couple hours later, during my last class of the day, one of the other 8th grade teachers come into my room and tells me that the girl’s mother was killed that morning in a crash with an 18-wheeler while on her way to work. She taught elementary school children at a small school in Vermont. I work at a small school also, and the 8th grade, by statistical anomaly this year, is 2/3 girls. All of these girls who seem so melodramatic at all times over all things are now facing real-life mortality and sudden, shattering loss up close and far too personally. Tuesday’s after-school discussions with the kids lasted much longer than normally also. 8th graders can be prodigiously, umm, … “communicative.” And they can be so incredibly emotionally needy. I don’t mean that negatively, that’s just the way kids are. They “need” emotional interaction. I’m totally cool with that. I just need to conserve my energy, to spend it on them and not myself. I’m happy not be compulsive about running/swimming every day. There are some things much more important than my own personal desires.

The weather wasn’t ideal for running or swimming anyway, with alternating snow and (almost) thaw leaving the roads rutted, icy and totally crappy for either running or driving to the pool. Then on Tuesday I HAD A GUEST!! Can you freakin’ believe it??? Somebody came to visit me!!! I am such a gawdamn hermit that I was totally surprised. I love surprises! Anyhoo, it was easy to take a little time off (Wednesday was a snow day – about a foot or so of heavy wet), but tonight I’m back to just lonely little ole me and absolutely had to swim. And I’ve been visualizing this swim for several days (that’s my “secret tranining”), so I’m certain that it will be be my finest workout ever.

I was slow getting out of the house, and didn’t get to the pool until exactly 7:00. They close the pool at 8. I’m hoping to do that 2 mile/sub-60 minute swim tonight, so I’m about to ask the owner if I could get and extra 5 minutes tonight. He beats me to it, though, and his first words to me after walking in the door are “I have to close the pool exactly at 8 tonight, so don’t dawdle.” D’oh. I figure it’s just as well. I’m all bound up; the right side of my back goes into spasm at any location at the slightest touch. I really need a good massage therapist. (Beth from ’91-‘95 was instrumental in many of my best racing seasons.) I stretch well and start swimming at about 7:15. I plan to swim quickly and efficiently right from the start. Almost from the start, though, I decide to do something completely different. I normally warm up with a couple easy, shakedown laps, usually breathing every 2 strokes, right side, then switch to breathing every 1 ½ stroke, alternating sides, of course. Today I decided, spontaneously after about half a lap, to stick with the 2 stroke pattern as long as possible. Which turned out to be the entire swim, 2500 m. It changed my mechanics quite a bit. In order to get oxygen quickly enough, I had to eliminate, almost completely, the two rest portions of my stroke (glide and recovery), and also speed the overall tempo up quite a bit. This created greater force, thus greater torque on the shoulders (my left is still weaker than the right, but is much, much stronger than 3 months ago). To reduce the stress on my shoulder, I increased my shoulder roll just a shade, and tried to stiffen the upper body while keeping the legs loose and pliable. I also did all my breathing right side, where my range of motion is better. It felt good! I could hear the water rushing past my ears, and the laps passed quickly. As usual, nobody was in the pool, indeed the pool area at all, throughout the entire swim. I busted it pretty good all the way through, beginning to tire at about 1500 m, but able to maintain tempo and pace (with very intense concentration – much like the third third of a marathon) completely through 2000 m and almost to 2500 m.

2500 m in 44:50. 500 m splits: 8:56, 8:52, 8:56, (26:44 for 1500, 28:34 for 1600 m), 8:58 (2k in 35:43), 9:08. Damn. That felt fast and looks fast written down. Must be all that secret training. Well, I did say my goal was to be knockin’ down the 500’s in under 9 minutes (2/8/08). I really like the sound of that 90 minute 5k. Look for that before the end of the month.

I still need that massage. My back (right side only) is knotted from my head to my ass. Every friggin’ centimeter. A long series spasms or spasms just waiting to happen. I’ll try to soldier bravely on.