Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Next Up - New York

Because I like to endure poor conditions.

This morning, I successfully completed the indoor pool qualifier for the Liberty Island Swim.
That's the 1.2km NYC Swim race around the Statue of Liberty (her island, specifically) on June 24th at 5:15PM.

It's the next race on my Calendar.
No races in April/May due to Tee Ball conflicts and 20in24 training.

As I recall, I registered for the swim on Christmas Day.
It's one of my dream races just begging to be crossed off my list.

The qualifying swim requirement: Complete a 1-mile pool swim in under 35 minutes.
I was supposed to do this by the end of January.
Self-imposed deadline.
Easy to ignore self.

Instead, over the weekend I decided I would swim it this morning.
The situation was perfect.
My daughter, HoneyBunny, had a field trip at 9AM or so. I took a vacation day to hang out on the trip.
I could wake up, roll up to the gym early, get in a nice warmup, wait for the lifeguard-that-voluntarily-talks-to-me to start her shift, beg her to sign the Swim Certification document, and then enjoy a nice day.

Nope.

Instead, I lumped on a few diminishing factors just because:

  • Field trip canceled due to rain
    • Normal work schedule, giving me about 40 minutes tops in the pool
  • Let the kids do a puppet show until about 11PM the night prior
    • Included waiting for all 15 Barbies in the audience to have their hair brushed
    • Resulted in less than 4 hours of sleep
  • Swung a heavy axe many times over the course of an hour on Sunday
    • Chopped up our old neighborhood playground for disposal
    • My skinny arms do not normally see that type of action, they are still hurting
  • Had not swam in over a week
    • I sneaked in an easy swim yesterday to wake my arms up
  • Had to approach the lifeguard that never talks to me, because he's on the first shift
    • "Hi, I know I'm basically a stranger, but can you put your cell phone number, email address, and signature on this form?"
  • Left my water bottle in the car and did not eat anything before the gym
  • Didn't pay much attention to the NYC Swim definition of a "pool mile"
But it wasn't all bad.
In my favor, I did get a haircut last night for streamlinedness, shaved for the same reason, and wore my compression running shorts versus a traditional bathing suit as I normally do.

Why running shorts? Why not the tri shorts?
Oh, they don't like, um, fit too good at the moment. Damnit.

And finally, I didn't get a warmup.
Quick chat with lifeguard, jump in pool and go.

Wearing the running shorts immediately shaved 5 seconds per lap off my time.
Regular swim trunks are way resistant.

I did cramp up and super crave food during the swim. I also had to drink a fair amount of pool water to combat dehydration. Ew.

But, needing to clock under 35 minutes, I finished the last lap at 29 minutes even. Perfect!
32 laps, 1600m in 29 minutes. Very satisfied with that considering the lack of swim lately.

Then I go to upload my results and realize I only had to swim 1500m.
I hope they don't hold that against me!

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

Oh I love when blogger eats my comment.

I first thought you were having the lifeguard fib for you, but I suppose going 100 extra meters would make up for that.

Anonymous said...

Good job! That sounds like fun actually.

Ever hear of the Newport Liberty Half-Marathon? It is in Sept. I am going to do it soley based on the fact that it is $37.