In the world of endurance sports, I fully admit that runners are weird. But bikers are weirder. And swimmers are the weirdest of all.
Yet I have a grudging respect for the accomplishment early this week of Diana Nyad in swimming from Cuba to Florida.
This feat took some 53 hours. My longest Ultrarunning effort (Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run) took me 35 hours, and I was pretty much played out when I finished.
Nyad was awake and swimming for an additional 18 hours. Oh, and she's 64 years old. These facts absolutely boggle my mind. Her mantra? "Never, ever, give up."
Which is good advice for me right now. See, my motivation levels for running, much less for committing to and training for a specific event, have been at near-record lows over the summer.
However...this morning's 5 mile run on my beloved Harshman Road route may have been a watershed event. The temps were cool, the humidity low, the sky a perfect deep blue. My mind wandered to possible Ultra events that I could yet enter this fall. I fully admit that part of my thought process was triggered by Nyad's effort.
I felt full of the possible.
Which is about the best feeling a person can have.
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Friday, September 6, 2013
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Olympic Swimmers...and Ultrarunning
These men and women (though some are but teenagers) are water equivalent of runners. Some sprint, some do middle distance, and some--our kindred spirits--do long distances.
But the one thing the swimmers all have in common with each other, in sharp contrast to the stereotypical lean Ultrarunner, is that they are all shaped like seals. Or maybe sea lions (I can never keep them straight).
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just an observation.
As for me, I have done lap training in pools for cross-training, and I'm a decent enough swimmer, but I Just. Don't Like. It. At all. There's no worse feeling in the world for me than being out of breath in the pool. I liken it to waterboarding, if to which I were subjected I would sing like a canary before the first drop even hit.
But the one thing the swimmers all have in common with each other, in sharp contrast to the stereotypical lean Ultrarunner, is that they are all shaped like seals. Or maybe sea lions (I can never keep them straight).
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just an observation.
As for me, I have done lap training in pools for cross-training, and I'm a decent enough swimmer, but I Just. Don't Like. It. At all. There's no worse feeling in the world for me than being out of breath in the pool. I liken it to waterboarding, if to which I were subjected I would sing like a canary before the first drop even hit.
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