sink or swim

Last week David Blaine failed to hold his breath for 9 minutes and break the current world record (8:58). Wetsuit clad divers jumped into his giant fishbowl to free him from his ankle shackles as he started to lose it. In the end, he had held his breath for something just over 7 minutes. He did manage to set a world record for the most amount of time any human being has remained submerged in water. So what does this have to do with fundraising or training? Not much, but Blaine's failure, happens to coincide with my own aquatic success: I think I might actually be learning how to swim freestyle. In case you're not already aware, I am a very bad swimmer. Or I should say, I was a very bad swimmer.

Now I am merely a bad swimmer. You might think this bit of progress is inconsequential, but I can only assure you that it is not. I've spent the last two weeks swimming nearly every day. I practiced kicking on my side, sculling, and various drills intended to improve your stroke. My main obstacle (or at least the most salient one) was breathing correctly. Overall, things seem to be coming together. I'm getting the breathing down, and I feel a lot more balanced in the water. I've still got a long way to go before I'm ready for the swim in the Hudson, but I'm not nearly as discouraged as I was a few weeks ago. Last night, I completed a 1/2 mile time trial--no stopping, no touching the ground, and no touching the walls. This was a big accomplishment for me, since around length #7 (it's a 50m pool), I wanted to stop and quit.

I --- LOVE --- TO --- SWIM. It's not really true yet, but that's my mantra, which is what you say to yourself to slow your strokes down and stretch out your body fully. More swimming tonight. I think I'm going to time trial again and see if I get any better,