Bring It

Lately, my secret vice is watching America's Next Top Model. When I'm wiped out from training at the pool, I curl up with the latest cycle as the girls battle it out. In-between watching the glam clothes and the catfights, I've learned something important. The first time Tyra took a girl aside during panel and said to her, "You're getting in your own way," I think I audibly gasped. Being fierce on the runway or while riding the waves is all about pushing past your own resistance. Not hitting that snooze alarm at 5 a.m. when it's time to get up and practice. No matter how you feel, you've got to bring it, everyday.

It is absolutely true that the most important competition you will ever have is with yourself. If you can consistently best your last effort and grow, you are ahead of the game and the pack. So I kept this in mind when I was at the bottom of the pack, timewise, after my first endurance swim in my Bronze  Cross class. Because at 15:36 I was still almost 2 1/2 minutes under the required time for swimming 24 lengths.

It wasn't glamorous, I was gasping for breath and hanging from the side of the pool when I finished but this time, I met the standards on all the "screening for success categories." Where before I couldn't dive to pick up the brick from the bottom of the pool, this time I did it and lugged it back almost the length of the pool, twice. That doesn't mean it's time to get overconfident. As our instructor, Chris explained to us, we're covering a lot of the same material as in Bronze Med but more is expected of us. It's time to take it up a notch.

But the key is consistent training that pushes past the limits of your will to stretch your body a little at a time. I read recently in Shape magazine, that if you're always hungry and tired, you're probably overtraining. So today, I let myself be satisfied with a 2-hour hike as cross-training and opted for an early bedtime over aquajogging.

But tomorrow I'll be up at 5 a.m. ready to head to the pool and work on those lengths so I can pull it all off with a little more style.

surfergrrrrrl,
signing off

                                                                my inner bombshell