Every four years I get the Olympics for my birthday. This year the
technological and athletic precision that goes into many of the events had me
in awe. The bobsled and the skiers 17 degree angles to the ground have me in
awe. The personal bests of skiers Bode Miller and Tim Leit are inspiring me.
And the determination of older athletes like Bode and Tim prove to us all that
we can keep pushing ourselves beyond previously thought retirement
"deadlines".
On my 46th birthday I headed to the pool for a session with Coach Matt. We've been focusing a lot on my technique this winter season. Now that I'm a competent swimmer, I've decided I have more to gain by balancing out my swim, bike, run workouts rather than emphasizing the quantity of pool time. So in each swim workout, I'm really going for quality and focus on technique - and it seems to be working. A few weeks ago I broke my previous 100 yard personal best.
A few weeks prior I had managed to get a personal best, knocking down my time to 1:46:15. So close to 1:45 I told myself. So I showed up the pool on my birthday with energy and determination. I knew I would need to do it early in my set before fatigue set in so I was happy when after some drills, Matt established we would start with 3 x 100. I didn't tell him about my intended drive for a PB but surely as I took off with the first 100, he could see I was on a mission.
When I had a less than perfect wall turn, I thought, oh no, maybe it won't happen on this one. Perhaps it made me push harder. I got to the finish thinking if anything, I would be within a thousandth of a second from my PB, and I thought I heard Matt wrong when he blurted out 1:44:75!!!!
And so, I've proved once again, we can get better with age.
On my 46th birthday I headed to the pool for a session with Coach Matt. We've been focusing a lot on my technique this winter season. Now that I'm a competent swimmer, I've decided I have more to gain by balancing out my swim, bike, run workouts rather than emphasizing the quantity of pool time. So in each swim workout, I'm really going for quality and focus on technique - and it seems to be working. A few weeks ago I broke my previous 100 yard personal best.
A few weeks prior I had managed to get a personal best, knocking down my time to 1:46:15. So close to 1:45 I told myself. So I showed up the pool on my birthday with energy and determination. I knew I would need to do it early in my set before fatigue set in so I was happy when after some drills, Matt established we would start with 3 x 100. I didn't tell him about my intended drive for a PB but surely as I took off with the first 100, he could see I was on a mission.
When I had a less than perfect wall turn, I thought, oh no, maybe it won't happen on this one. Perhaps it made me push harder. I got to the finish thinking if anything, I would be within a thousandth of a second from my PB, and I thought I heard Matt wrong when he blurted out 1:44:75!!!!
And so, I've proved once again, we can get better with age.
