Master's Swim: The Ultimate Humbling Experience

Well, today was another chance to test my "mental strength" and positive-thinking skills. I had the dubious honor of sharing a lane at the pool with Natalie this morning. I'll just use her first name so as not to embarrass her (as if she would read my blog anyway!).

Everyone in our Master's swim class knows Natalie. No, she's not some former collegiate rockstar swimmer....in fact, I don't think she's ever swam competitively at all. But she should have because she's amazingly fast and never out of breath.

If she weren't so gosh darn nice, we'd all hate her. But Natalie is one of the sweetest, quietest people I know. She's a joy to be around and I was honored to share a lane with her today.

I have to mention that Natalie has 8 children. Yes, you read right. She had 6 boys the old-fashioned way and then she and her husband decided to adopt. They adopted one beautiful little girl and are in the process of adopting another. Being an adoptive mom myself, I admire anyone who has SIX boys at home (yes, they're all at home, ages 8 - 16) and then decides to add two more to the mix. She's way cool in book!

So, today I was in the lane first by myself warming up, feeling pretty frisky, and there goes someone right by me. Whoever it is is swimming so fast, she's already lapped me once. Its gotta be Natalie, and it is.

At first I don't worry about it but as I start to swim faster and find that I still can't keep up with her, I start to wonder how in the world I'm ever going to swim 2.4 miles nonstop in Arizona in under 2 hours (ok, I know I already swam that distance in Florida in 1:18 but still...I felt like a drunk turtle next to Natalie!).

Just gotta shrug it off. She's always quick to remind me that I could run circles around her (her words, not mine) and that "we're all different". Yes, but I still would love to swim even half as fast as Natalie can.

So, today we warmed up with 150 free, 150 pull, 150 kick, and 150 choice. I did the first three sets and then Richard started the main set: 4 x 150's with the 2nd and 4th being faster; then 4 100's descending (the last one being the fastest) and there was more but I had to leave at 7:00 to get the kids to school on time (oh darn, I have to leave!).

I'm out of the pool at 7:00, home by 7:20; get the kids up, fed, and off to school (Kurt was at work early today), stopped by to see my mom and came home to go for a run.

Left the house at 9:20 and jogged slow for 10 mins. It was colder than I thought it would be and the sky was grey. I wore my Ipod and let myself settle into a good rhythm. I love my weekday solo runs - I just let my mind go and run without thinking too much about anything.

I tried picking up the pace but must admit, it feels weird after a hard swim. I don't know why that is, to be honest. My arms and shoulders are tired from the swim but you'd think that it wouldn't affect the legs. Yet, I felt slow and awkward at first. I finally loosened up and pushed the pace. I ran several several pick-ups and then one long 10 minute tempo run.

When I got back home I felt like I could've pushed a little harder or gone farther but that's ok. Right now, I want to hold back just a little. I don't want to go all out yet. It's too early.

So not a bad workout today: hard swim and good run. I may not be the fastest swimmer but as long as I keep showing up, it's alright with me.