Wednesday 10.17.12

11 days or approximately 260 hours until the race......Back and forth watching tiles on the bottom of a pool.  I can tell you where every discoloration is on the bottom of the pool at the Coppell Aquatic Center.  I know where every grate and silver ring are.  I can tell you how many strokes I have covered or how many to go from looking at the lifeguard stand or the slide on the other side of the pool.  When the "T" arrives at the end of the lane, the wall will come up in three strokes.  I know all of the lifeguards by name now and they know me.  When I'm late, they ask me where I have been?  I have covered 232,000 yards in that pool this year.  Thats 136.5 miles in a 25 yard pool.  9,280 lengths of the pool.  The pool has four lanes and I can tell you anything you want to know about any of them.  Like an animal at the zoo, I go back and forth.  It isn't as horrible as this sounds.  Some days, it's the most enjoyable training I do.  It's just the staggering amount of cummulative time I have spent there.  It's the work that went into this for the year.  I will probably knock out 300k yards this year.  When you think of it in those terms, why would anyone worry about one single 1.2 mile swim in Austin, Texas.  Open water is completely different.  You can't see more than about a foot or two in the lake.  It's dark in the water.  People are grabbing your legs, elbowing you in the head, swimming on top of you.  It causes your heart rate to rise and makes you tired mentally.  It's swimming out into the middle of a large body of water without lane ropes and walls.  It's different.  The plan was for 2100 yards today.  Kind of an abbreviated workout.  Good, I woke up at 5am again today but hit the mental snooze button till 6:15am.  The swim only took 45 minutes.  I may have rushed a little.  One of the main guys with the Dallas Athletes was at the pool this morning.  His name is Tom.  I asked him where his group has been.  They usually have a group of 10-12 that swim there on Wednesday.  He said they are coming in around 8am.  No wonder it has been kind of quiet lately on Wednesday.  Hopefully, I can get home from work early today.  I have a 70-90 minute bike ride to do tonight.