Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I Am A Freestyler.......the Swimming Kind

I am going to be able to do the sprint triathlon! Dare I say I have it in the bag?  Just kidding - I don't want to jinx myself!

This past weekend I figured out that I needed to swim the equivalent of 24 laps in the sprint triathlon I am hoping to try for my first triathlon. I panicked at the thought of swimming 600 yards of freestyle all at once.  I know I can breast stroke too but I want the possibility of swimming it all freestyle to be a reality.

(A little history - This fall I started out swimming 1 lap of freestyle, slowly made it into two until I had worked my way up to 5 in a row.  Last week was hard and I whined about it on my post.  I didn't see me increasing it from 5 for a long time if ever.  Well.)

Well.

This week I did 3 sets of 5 and I was on my fourth set.  As I neared the end of this set it occurred to me that I "had it."  I could keep going.  I continued to 10 laps with no hesitation and kept on going.  Before I stopped (mostly because I had to go to work) I had swum 30 freestyle laps in a row!  30 in a row out of a total of 45 freestyle laps.  (60 laps in all)

I did my next to last lap on my back which I always do.  Just so I wouldn't get too big headed the swimming gods had me slam my head into the wall when I got to the end!

And then when I got to school and took off my boots the shoe gods had their laugh too as I had packed two left shoes.  But as I have said I work with  a great team and my colleague insisted I go home and get my shoes while she took my students for half an hour!


But even those two things could not overshadow the euphoria I felt all day from my accomplishment! It may not have been wasn't fast and it may not have been wasn't pretty but I did 30 freestyle laps in a row!

And there were requests for pics of the best Christmas tree yet. Remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  And we love Charlie Brown trees!
Going up to get the tree.....

The stand of trees has gotten just a tad tall.....

This is the before shot......look at the top.

Here it is in all it's glory.  Martha Stewart I am
not but I do love my tree and all it's decorations.



23 comments:

Char said...

Your swimming's going from strength to strength. Well done! And packing two left shoes is a lot better than buying two left shoes - or boots, which is the case with me.

Paul said...

Glad the swimming is going so well! I feel I need to get some pointers as I know my stroke is messed up.

Also I can't breath to the left worth a darn...in open water swimming if there's a wind from the right, you need to be able to breath on the downwind side (no chop). Or at least so I'm told ;)

THe good news is you can wear a wet suit and that makes you floaty...and faster as a result.

But you can always talk to your daughter about all this stuff....!

Amy @ Juice Boxes + Crayolas said...

Congrats on your awesome swim!! I am planning on doing my first sprint tri next summer...I LOVE breast stroke but I too struggle with freestyle! In fact I can do just 1 or 2 laps without either freaking out in the water or needing a rest break. I've been gradually adding a few laps of freestyle into my swims right now in hopes of getting better, but if not I am fully okay with being the only breast stroker in the race!

Alisa said...

Yay swimming! Justin's family always goes to cut down the tree from the forest, I'd never done it before I met him. It's such a fun tradition!

Christina said...

I think almost every Christmas treee is pretty :)

Your swimming is going really well. Good job for sticking with it and having the desire to keep doing better and better. It is very inspiring.

Kate Geisen said...

This is so awesome!! I knew you'd be able to do the swim, but what a fantastic feeling to already be swimming so strong. :) You've got lots of time for it to get prettier in the next few months.

And I must not be the only one overtired, since my youngest fell asleep watching a movie with us at about 6:30 this evening.

I love the tree. It's the kind of tree that just makes you feel happy.

MCM Mama said...

I love that tree. Ours is fake because I've never met a Christmas tree that didn't make me sneeze. I love how yours just has its own personality...

Great job on the swimming!

Fran said...

You are going to be great at your first sprint thriathlon! Well done on the 30 laps in a row!

Love your tree. I'm no Marta Stewart either but who cares: the tree has to be a tree that we like.

Christi said...

I am going to call you Ariel from now on! Congrats on your swim accomplishments!

Darlene said...

WOW! I am totally impressed with your swimming!Love real trees!!

RunningWhit said...

YEAHHHHHH! Congrats on your big swim accomplishment. That is awesome! You should check to see if anyone in your area is hosting the One Hour Postal Swim Meet in January. It's a national US Masters swim meet that you can do on your own or with your local Masters club. It's something I do to track my progress each year.

Ewa said...

I am such a selfish person. I was hoping freestyle would never work for you. This would only reinforce my feeling that I can never do it and that for the rest of my life I could get by with breaststroke. Darn!!! :-)
Congrats!!!
Love your Xmas tree.

Giorgio said...

Great job on your freestyle laps!

I enjoyed seeing how you got your Christmas tree. :)
Beautiful decoration!

Katie said...

look at you go!

Karen said...

I am pretty sure you DO have this in the bag! So impressed with your progress. WAY TO GO YOU!

Lindsay said...

your tree looks great! i presume you chopped off the top bit of the really tall one? at least it looks really tall out in the wild there. going to cut your own down is awesome :)

Liz said...

Your improvement in swimming has been incredible. I'll have to try and emulate you one day!

In answer to your question, no my children don't go to religious schools, but it's traditional for many state schools here in the UK to put on a nativity play at Christmas. At Robbie's old school last year, they did a (secular) play about Christmas all around the world, so I guess it varies from school to school, and year to year. Is it different in the States?

Kandi said...

I'm glad your swim went better this week!!
I had a weird triathlon dream last night where I forgot to take my bike... oops. Extra weird since I have only ever done one tri and it was a few years ago.
I love your tree. It looks like it has it's arms up crossing a finish line. ;)

Amy said...

Just catching up with you - good job on the swimming! Lovely tree and a very sweet puppy...
LOL to the two left shoes - thank goodness for understanding colleagues!

HappyTrails said...

Yay for the swimming! Ok - now, I think you 'get' our humor - have you watched the movie, "Christmas Vacation" with Chevy Chase??? Your first couple of pics made me think of the scenes of the Griswalds trudging through the snow searching for their PERFECT tree and all of a sudden, a light from heaven illuminates their majestic specimen. Where's your light from heaven illuminating your PERFECT specimen??? It made me laugh! Regardless of reminding me of the Griswald Family Christmas, it IS a BEAUTIFUL tree! :-)

Teamarcia said...

Holy cow you cut down that monster tree? Fabulous!
I don't have to tell you how impressed I am with your swimming. You are a total badass.

Anonymous said...

Wow, you cut down your own tree!! Amazing swim!

Black Knight said...

Your swimming improves day after day, I am very happy for you.
Beautiful Christmas tree.