Swimming

Since 2004, we've kept track of our mileage (1650 yards or 1500 meters = 1 mile) and we get prizes for 100 miles (t-shirt), 200 miles (sweatshirt or nice shirt), 300 miles (towel), and 400 miles (dinner for 2 + notepads which are the perfect size for work). I remember the first or second year I racked up 544 miles. Last year I hit 400 miles on the button, and I swam at LA Fitness when I went home for the holidays. That was kind of ironic because I paid about $50 to swim and get my miles and the dinner for 2 was probably about $40 (although it was worth it to workout while I was home). This year I am in serious danger of not hitting the 400 mark. I'm at 335 miles today, so I have 65 miles left to swim this year. It's been tricky with our schedule being different (practices are only 60 minutes instead of 90 minutes, and we don't have a practice on Friday mornings in FW) and with my priority being the marathon. For some reason, I really want to continue the 400+ mile tradition and get my free dinner!

I've actually swum 3 mornings in a row, which is a rarity these days. On Monday we did 15 x 100's (5 @ 1:30, 4 @ 1:25, 3 @ 1:20, 2 @ 1:15, 1 @ 1:10), and I went 1:07 on the last one. I was really happy with that because I felt like junk after all of the unhealthy food I ate over the weekend and it seems like I just keep getting slower. Shanna Armstrong (http://www.shannaarmstrong.com) has been swimming with us on some Mondays. She's improved a ton after just a few practices, and she went 1:10 on the last 100. So it was great to have someone to race. Fortunately the flip turns gave me a little bit of an advantage :)

I was looking forward to Masters Nationals at Clovis in May since my parents could drive up and see me. I doubt I'll be able to go though since it's so close to the wedding. It looks like it will be a great meet... a lot of big names (I am a huge swimming dork and I stalk people on Facebook) are talking about going.