Swimming
This post came in a roundabout way. Today is 7-11. 7-11 is free slurpee day. Free slurpees are one of my college coach's favorite treats. This means that I inevitably think of swimming on free slurpee day, and to add to the swimming train of thought I counted for my sister's mile this morning, which is actually only the second swim meet I have attended since February. Now that I am in the mood, I figured a good dose of swimming reflection is in order to honor free slurpee day.
It may come as a surprise, but not all of my time is consumed by eating and thinking about food and travel and the awesome food you get when you travel. Somehow I also have to keep myself healthy enough to actually eat all of the food I create. Until last February, my daily routine included swim team. It still includes a little swim, but it's not so much fun without a team.
Non-swimmers think of swimming and say, "Oh, swimming. Well that's not hard. What else do you do?" Just to clarify, swimming and swim team are not the same thing. Swim team is swimming and weight training and anything else that makes you a stronger athlete. Swim team is 15-20 hours every week in the pool at 6 a.m. with the team, tracking breathing, times, pace, stroke rate, and everything else you could possibly alter in 25 yards. Swim team is making sure you that you are hitting your absolute max on the sprint sets and holding within a second on your endurance sets. It is supporting your teammates and pushing yourself. It is not swimming back and forth like directionless goldfish in an oversized bowl.
There is a wonderful camaraderie in swimming that has always surprised me since it is such an individual sport. I swim for my own times, but the team is my rock. I always swim faster with a line of teammates dancing on the side of the pool to stave off boredom during my mile. We spend far too many hours together on deck, then find ourselves seeking out our teammates after class for dinner, for dessert, for homework help, for friendship. We support each other rather than destroy each other. That amazing tradition of shaking hands with the swimmer to either side after the race is not just a formality. I am always truly grateful for my competitors because without them I would not push myself.
Swimming has always seemed to me to be a swimmer's sport rather than a spectator sport. Not that I don't recommend watching - it's gorgeous when swimmers get it right. Just look at the Olympics - swimming has never been so popular as it became after Michael Phelps took the spotlight with eight gold medals. It is just hard to identify with swimmers if you never suffered through the 400 IM, the 200 butterfly, the mile, or even just those groan-inducing sets that every coach puts on the board with an evil grin and an assurance that if anyone skips anything the entire set will begin again. Then someone skips 50 yards.
Swimming is a sport, but also a lifestyle. We are those strange bleary-eyed people who decide that 5:30 is a reasonable hour to get soaking wet. In the summer, it's even supposed to be a reasonable hour to be soaking wet outside. It was about 36ºF on my final first day of summer swim practice in the middle of May at 5:45 a.m. We spend all day, even all of an entire weekend, watching people swim back and forth, and we cheer like mad for every single one of them. Maybe it's the chlorine-streaked hair or maybe it's the broad shoulders (though my college roommate tells me there is no single swimmer body type), but swimmers connect even outside the pool. Maybe it's just the myriad swim shirts that every swimmer receives for every big meet, every team and every championship, so that every t-shirt a swimmer owns is a swim shirt.
The swim shirts were out in full force today, even though I was only at the pool for two hours. I spent a rare early morning counting for my sister's mile at a meet at the pool I used to swim in, with the team I used to swim for. The coach is one of my old lane mates. The little kids are now the "big buddies." It is a little strange to be out of the swim world and even stranger to see the kids I swam with coaching the team. I am not obligated to stay through the meet anymore, nor was I inclined to stay today. Kate swam and I cheered and pumped the lap counters like crazy as if my energy could make her swim faster. Swimming will never be over for me, but I don't need to watch the 8&unders swim their 25 freestyles anymore until my own children are those flailing bodies reaching out for the other end of the pool.
Don't worry. I will come up with some delicious food to post soon. Just thinking about swimming makes me think about post-swimming meals. Food invariably tastes ten thousand times better when eating with a group of swimmers hungry after a workout, the smell of chlorine still wafting off of everyone at the table.
It may come as a surprise, but not all of my time is consumed by eating and thinking about food and travel and the awesome food you get when you travel. Somehow I also have to keep myself healthy enough to actually eat all of the food I create. Until last February, my daily routine included swim team. It still includes a little swim, but it's not so much fun without a team.
Non-swimmers think of swimming and say, "Oh, swimming. Well that's not hard. What else do you do?" Just to clarify, swimming and swim team are not the same thing. Swim team is swimming and weight training and anything else that makes you a stronger athlete. Swim team is 15-20 hours every week in the pool at 6 a.m. with the team, tracking breathing, times, pace, stroke rate, and everything else you could possibly alter in 25 yards. Swim team is making sure you that you are hitting your absolute max on the sprint sets and holding within a second on your endurance sets. It is supporting your teammates and pushing yourself. It is not swimming back and forth like directionless goldfish in an oversized bowl.
There is a wonderful camaraderie in swimming that has always surprised me since it is such an individual sport. I swim for my own times, but the team is my rock. I always swim faster with a line of teammates dancing on the side of the pool to stave off boredom during my mile. We spend far too many hours together on deck, then find ourselves seeking out our teammates after class for dinner, for dessert, for homework help, for friendship. We support each other rather than destroy each other. That amazing tradition of shaking hands with the swimmer to either side after the race is not just a formality. I am always truly grateful for my competitors because without them I would not push myself.
Swimming has always seemed to me to be a swimmer's sport rather than a spectator sport. Not that I don't recommend watching - it's gorgeous when swimmers get it right. Just look at the Olympics - swimming has never been so popular as it became after Michael Phelps took the spotlight with eight gold medals. It is just hard to identify with swimmers if you never suffered through the 400 IM, the 200 butterfly, the mile, or even just those groan-inducing sets that every coach puts on the board with an evil grin and an assurance that if anyone skips anything the entire set will begin again. Then someone skips 50 yards.
Swimming is a sport, but also a lifestyle. We are those strange bleary-eyed people who decide that 5:30 is a reasonable hour to get soaking wet. In the summer, it's even supposed to be a reasonable hour to be soaking wet outside. It was about 36ºF on my final first day of summer swim practice in the middle of May at 5:45 a.m. We spend all day, even all of an entire weekend, watching people swim back and forth, and we cheer like mad for every single one of them. Maybe it's the chlorine-streaked hair or maybe it's the broad shoulders (though my college roommate tells me there is no single swimmer body type), but swimmers connect even outside the pool. Maybe it's just the myriad swim shirts that every swimmer receives for every big meet, every team and every championship, so that every t-shirt a swimmer owns is a swim shirt.
The swim shirts were out in full force today, even though I was only at the pool for two hours. I spent a rare early morning counting for my sister's mile at a meet at the pool I used to swim in, with the team I used to swim for. The coach is one of my old lane mates. The little kids are now the "big buddies." It is a little strange to be out of the swim world and even stranger to see the kids I swam with coaching the team. I am not obligated to stay through the meet anymore, nor was I inclined to stay today. Kate swam and I cheered and pumped the lap counters like crazy as if my energy could make her swim faster. Swimming will never be over for me, but I don't need to watch the 8&unders swim their 25 freestyles anymore until my own children are those flailing bodies reaching out for the other end of the pool.
Don't worry. I will come up with some delicious food to post soon. Just thinking about swimming makes me think about post-swimming meals. Food invariably tastes ten thousand times better when eating with a group of swimmers hungry after a workout, the smell of chlorine still wafting off of everyone at the table.
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