Day: June 15, 2012

You Know You’re a Swimmer If…

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I have been reading Swim: Why We Love the Water by Lynn Sherr and thoroughly enjoying it.  It is exactly the kind of non-fiction that I love.  It explores an aspect of my life in an entertaining way.  Sherr shares her stories of open water swims including journeys in waters from all over the world.

Anyway, I will do a full review once I am finished but in one of the asides she lists You Know You’re a Swimmer If… and I thought some of them were quite funny and true:

You Know You’re a Swimmer If…

1. You’re crossing a bridge and think, “I could swim across this…”

2. People ask you to do a triathlon, and you say you would if it weren’t for the run and bike parts.

3. You put off the decision to color your hair until after the summer swimming season.

4. You have more swimsuits hanging in your closets than dresses

5. You have an emergency swim bag in your car just in case…

6. You can’t remember the last time you took a shower at home (totally true with me in the winter bc I always shower at the gym!)

7. Bugs die of chlorine poisoning when they land on your skin

8. You say to your dog, ‘wanna go for a swim?’ and she gets more excited than offering a walk

9. You find yourself counting strokes instead of sheep to fall asleep at night.  Then, just when you’re about to fall asleep, instead of leg twitching a little bit, it does a full whip kick and you ride the glide to slumberland.

10. You get in the water and feel like an eagle in the sky (so true!)

11. You’re first thought when trying on bathing suits is ‘how will this help me with my stroke’ not ‘Will this make my legs look big?’

12.  Men in speedos is routine…

13. You get physically excited when someone says ‘oh I love to swim too…’.  It’s a match!

(Those last 3 I made up)

Got any to add my friends?

There actually is a whole blog just on this topic http://youknowyoureaswimmer.tumblr.com/

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No Vacation: No Distraction

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Everyone knows I’m a huge traveler and love experiencing new places, cultures and food.  So you might find it surprising when I talk about my plans for the summer. I have decided to take NO VACATIONS.

No Beach This Year 😦

Here’s why:

I have a goal to swim a 5k at the Deer Creek Open Water Swim.  This is an ambitious goal- 3 times what I struggled to swim at the GSL race.  I know I will not be able to accomplish this goal without some serious dedication.   Even with the dedication it will be a challenge.

I had thought about going to Disneyland but I have to go to California for work/reunion (doesn’t count as a vacation, more like a business trip) and if you add Disneyland it will be 2 weeks away from my training.  I can’t risk that.

I also decided to put the  money I would have put to travel towards my training.  I have started meeting with a dietician and am taking UFC kickboxing classes (they are so much fun and the trainer is great!).  This week I was supposed to take the week off and rest my muscles…I have worked out every day.  Not too successful.  Sorry doc!

I’ve also been watching what eat even more carefully and am using myfitnesspal.com to help me keep track.  I found I was either eating too much or too little.  Now it is closer to the right balance.  By not going on vacation I am able to control my diet more carefully.

I still have vacation days to use but I plan on applying those to recovery days and then if I have extra I may take a trip in the winter to NYC.  Maybe New York for Christmas! (The Tony awards peaked my interest in a couple shows).

What I would love to do is save money so I can go to the swim camps in Costa Rica.   That would be a dream come true! It would also be an easy trip to go by myself because it is planned, group oriented.  I don’t feel like I am a good enough swimmer yet for it to be worth it but I’d love to go!

http://www.costaricadreamswimcamps.com/costaricadreamswimcamps.com/Welcome.html

I’m really going to miss the beach this year. It’s just not summer without the beach but at least I have a salt lake to enjoy and there is always the man-made strangeness of Black Ridge in Herriman.

Black Ridge reservoir (more like a cow pond behind some houses) strange place but nice!

I’ve just got to make sure that with no vacation I don’t make myself crazy.  I’ve got to find ways to relax within my normal schedule.  Especially with training this could be difficult.  I do not want to get over-stressed like I did before the GSL (no promises but I’m going to try!).

What do you do to relax when you can’t vacation or travel?