Swimmer High

I didn't even think about it but it makes sense. I've heard of a runner's high and even experienced one just one when I was a sophomore in high school. I can still remember it because it was such a cool thing. I was at Hagg Lake for a cross country invitational. It was our 2nd or 3rd race of the season as I was still junior varsity at the time plus it was a nice morning. I finished my warm-up and it was nothing special. The JV runners were doing a 3K which I always stunk at. I figured oh well I'll just try my best. I always did better at the 5K. This is where it got a little interesting. We were hovering around the starting line when head coach comes up to me. He tells me that he overheard another coach was having one of his varsity guys run the JV race in order to get an easy win. I'm so competitive I immediately was ready to rip up the course even though my coach gave me some key pieces of motivation that I still can't remember him saying. I was already seeing red. What a bastard, I would give anything to be racing with our varsity team rather than sandbagging and getting cheap JV wins. I think my coach even pointed out the person but it didn't matter to me at the time.

The gun went off and I was jostling for position towards the front of the pack. The race started at Boat Ramp C parking lot and went up the little steep hill to the road and turned right. As part of our warmup, we'd always jog the course. I knew that we'd do a bit on the road then make a hard right onto a trail. The trail would start out normal sized and then hit some killer single track during a switchback downhill. I knew this so I pushed the last 200 meters of the road to get to the front. I was about 5th when we hit the trail. Just right before the switchback I made my move. I hit the switchbacks in the lead with a major surge. I think there were like 200 meters or so of single track before the trail leveled off and opened up again. That's when it happened. The trail opened up and I felt awesome. I mean it was light I was flying with absolutely no typical run suffering. I started to push even faster because it didn't feel hard.

I created this huge lead and in my head just assumed someone had went down in the jostling on the single track. I heard later that no one fell. I had to be going close to 5 minute mile pace. I was motoring and a few spectators were on this section. They were cheering but it was all muffled. I was just in the "ZONE". I felt invincible. I hit the parking lot all alone and finished to my cheering teammates. They all were shocked at how far in front I was. I PRed by well over a minute. It was guessed that the course was a little short as most everyone had some sort of PR.

I don't think I'll ever forget that race. It's one of those defining moments as a runner. Well today seemed to be a key moment in my brief swimming career so far. I was planning on doing intervals but at the last minute as I slipped into the pool I decided just to do a long time trial, my normal 2200 yards.

I was just cruising along clipping off my new pace 1:50 to 1:52 splits. I hit the 2000 yard mark and I was trying focus as my stroke was getting tired...then it happened. For about 400 yards, I was in the zone. The stroke felt easy just as if I had just started. It was great. I kept going since there was no reason to stop at 2200. I was going to ride it until my split times disintegrated. I wish I had more swim experience as I would've upped my pace a bit just to take full advantage. I ended up with 2900 yards. I stopped counting during the swimmer high and figured I was close to 3000 yards. I guess I should've done one more 100 just for a nice new all time high round number. Either way it's only about 1600 yards til a full ironman swim. I feel that I'm not going to drown anymore at least in the pool. I'm hoping the half coming at Disneyworld in May will improve my swimming in a pack and open water confidence.

With such a great swim this morning, I'm thinking my new diet should be a Digorno pizza as pre-race fuel. I ate a whole Digorno last night. It comes out to be 2200 calories alone. Good times. I had completed a 90 minute hard ride with intervals and a 6.3 mile run during the day so I felt I deserved some calories. I keep flirting with bonking on the brick runs if I don't down a gel right before I head out the door. I need to get myself a running pack so I can take water/nutrition with me on these long brick runs. During the last couple of miles, I was willing my body to eat all this extra fat I have stored because my glycogen stores were empty.

I was just under 7 minute pace for the run and I was just cruising along easy. My run is right there and my swim is coming along nicely. I just need to get my bike butt in gear. I'm hoping to help the bike cause this weekend with some big miles. I know I can get my bike ready by August if I just keep on it but man it's disappointing right now.

4 months 20 days...