Overheard today in the showers from two veteran moms to one new mom: "Do as we do, not as we say. What we've done ain't pretty." And it struck me as the crystalline truth. Heck, I will tell people as far and wide as my voice can be heard that TV is a waste of time for kids, but come to my house on a rainy weekday when some work needs to get done and guess what? Spongebob reigns. I can tell you I believe in consistency and always making sure your kids know what to expect to prevent tantrums, but come to my house when I make a last minute decision that there will be no dessert after dinner and you'll see an uprising I am not equipped to defeat.
On our team, in the women's locker room, we watch each other get married (showing off their gorgeous swimmer muscled arms), have babies (stretching out their previously gorgeous and flat tummies), and become grandparents (luxuriating in all the time in the world to SWIM!). We give advice and knowing glances when one of us shows up after a sleepless night, desperate to be outside in the chlorine, cranking it out instead of nursing and rocking through the hours when it feels like no one else is alive or awake on the planet. (I remember drinking a full pot of coffee at 3AM before showing up at 5:45 - knowing that it was pointless to try and sleep between a feeding and a swim; Yearning for my muscles to feel numb instead of my brain.)
We are lucky to have each other. There is something more reassuring than my slippery image of God for me, about the feeling I'll have when I'm done with a swim...about the hot shower and lotion lube up and coffee I'll travel to get. And mostly, about seeing the same swimmers day after day, whatever the life cycle, in the locker room and in the pool, beside me.
And now for something unemotional. The workout:
*150 free, 50 breast, 25 breast kick
repeat 4x
*100 breast with varying kick/pull ratio, 100 breast kick tummy to back, 100 7 kick free (one dry shoulder, one wet), 100 fast free
repeat 3x
*50 easy free, 50 breast focus on arms, 50 breast focus on elbows, 50 fast free
repeat 3x
On our team, in the women's locker room, we watch each other get married (showing off their gorgeous swimmer muscled arms), have babies (stretching out their previously gorgeous and flat tummies), and become grandparents (luxuriating in all the time in the world to SWIM!). We give advice and knowing glances when one of us shows up after a sleepless night, desperate to be outside in the chlorine, cranking it out instead of nursing and rocking through the hours when it feels like no one else is alive or awake on the planet. (I remember drinking a full pot of coffee at 3AM before showing up at 5:45 - knowing that it was pointless to try and sleep between a feeding and a swim; Yearning for my muscles to feel numb instead of my brain.)
We are lucky to have each other. There is something more reassuring than my slippery image of God for me, about the feeling I'll have when I'm done with a swim...about the hot shower and lotion lube up and coffee I'll travel to get. And mostly, about seeing the same swimmers day after day, whatever the life cycle, in the locker room and in the pool, beside me.
And now for something unemotional. The workout:
*150 free, 50 breast, 25 breast kick
repeat 4x
*100 breast with varying kick/pull ratio, 100 breast kick tummy to back, 100 7 kick free (one dry shoulder, one wet), 100 fast free
repeat 3x
*50 easy free, 50 breast focus on arms, 50 breast focus on elbows, 50 fast free
repeat 3x
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