Thursday, January 5, 2012

Back in the Day

The alarm goes off.  I look at the clock.  It's 4:55 a.m.
Uh.  I drag myself out of bed, look to see if anyone else is up yet.  Yep.  I'm the last one.
Down the stairs...put on my bathing suit, grab my bag, put on my Hillsdale College Swimming parka.
We give each other the look...we'd better not be late.  Out the door.
It's freaking freezing out.  We're freshmen, so we don't have a car...we walk to the Sports Complex.
5:30 a.m.  We stand at the edge of the pool, dreading the dive into the icy cold water.
"I would give anything not to have to do this right now!", runs through my head as I stand there staring at the calm water...
One day I actually remember saying, "I think I'm gonna die."  My faithful swimming partner Colleen talked me off the ledge, "Melissa, you're not gonna die."  So simple but true.
As soon as I hit the oh so familiar H2O, I flip that switch.  Now, I'm ready.  And, I'm excited to see what's in store for me for the next 2 hours.
I give it my all.  I want to make the most of the time I have to train and get better...
Go to class, then back in the water to do it all again at 3:30 p.m.

I grew up in the water.  I swam starting from the time I was 5 or 6.  I literally spent nearly every day on a pool deck.  Whether it was my own swimming practice, or it was me just hanging out at my dad's practice, I was there.  My sport was going back and forth, back and forth.  Most of the time for 2 hours a pop, twice a day.  Face in the water, staring at the bottom of the pool.  Sounds like a blast, huh?
Just me, the water, the time clock.  That's all it was about...beating the clock.  Swimming faster than the time before.  Swimming is cut and dry like that.  Either you were faster or you weren't.  If you weren't you had to train harder to be faster.  If you were, you had to train harder to be faster.
With all that training, I probably should've made it to the Olympics...ha, not even close.  But it was all worth it.

I'm so glad that I have this mindset.  It's like riding a bike.  As soon as I get myself into a workout, whether it's running, a video...whatever, I am so ready and happy I did.
It's all about the way you look at it.  You can dread it, and curse it and hate it...but why?
Doing any sort of workout at all is stepping closer to a better you!  That's the way I see it.

All it takes is just getting started.  That's all.

To sum it up, my husband Kent went to the high school the other day for a workout.  The first thing he said when he walked in the door was, "Man, I feel so much better when I work out."

You just have to DO it!
 

4 comments:

  1. So true! Thanks for the inspiration! Headed to the gym tomorrow...Oh wait Monday, when the kids are back in school! (love hearing those swim stories, I always admired your will and dedication! :))

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  2. Ha! Kent and I were just talking about dreading going back to school! :-)

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  3. You're not gonna die! You're not gonna die! ... Haha, that's funny because I remember saying that too! I may have been the one motivating you back then but you are definitely the one motivating me now! Do you still swim? I swam a mile last week and it was pathetic! Oh well. Thanks for the pep talks. Keep it up :)

    -Colleen

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  4. Ha! I swam in my high school alumni meet just before Christmas. It was fun, but man swimming is hard! :-)

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