Swim Across the Sound: Swim Week

After what feels like an eternal preparatory period, we have finally arrived. It’s Swim Across the Sound Week.

Yours truly after a recent open water training session.

Truth is, I haven’t trained this hard in a good, long while. Part of this came out of a desire to do well in the Swim, but most of it came from simple competition from my Army Swimming teammates. Several of the guys swim a lot -- way more than me! -- and I’ve found myself swimming more over the course of the last year or so just from a desire not to be the slowest guy in the group chat.

Not that this has worked. I definitely am the slowest guy in the group chat.

But I’ve still been working hard, and now that we’ve finally hit the tapering phase of this training cycle, I can actually feel myself rounding into form. That’s been fun. 

Still, I always feel like it’s a weird kind of struggle once I start tapering. You wouldn’t think swimming less would be a serious challenge, but it’s been messing with me both because I’m training less and therefore out of my routine and also because I always get in my head about how “ready” and “in shape” I am as the yardage starts coming down. Once I’m no longer proving it to myself on a day-to-day basis, maintaining my confidence on sheer faith in my training can be really, really tough. 

Thankfully, we’ll hit the water Saturday, and that’ll be that.

I am beyond ready to just get this done.

I’ve gotta say, too, that my team looks good. Chris Wiley has put in several 5K swims in recent weeks, mostly in open water up in Maine. Meanwhile, Stephen is playing in a big-time water polo tournament this weekend -- all the way down in Columbia! -- and I even got a chance to meet Jacob and watch him swim recently at the gym, so I know first hand that he is an excellent swimmer. We should do really well.

Friends, if you haven’t donated yet, please consider doing so. Our team is about $2K short of our goal, and while I’m happy with the money that we’ve raised, I also know that real people need real help when they’re dealing with cancer. The Swim helps those folks hold their lives together while they fight that devastating fight. We’re trying to do what we can, and you can, too.

The Swim Across the Sound is Saturday.

Go Team! Beat Cancer!!!