Saturday, January 17, 2009

Test Day

As much as I tried to hide my head in the sand, Saturday morning appeared right on schedule and that meant it was time for my swim test. Visions of drowning danced in my head, along with Coach's email from earlier in the week about the tests on our schedules:

The tests are HARD. You should be giving an all out effort. Do what it takes to leave it all out there. This should be quite uncomfortable and by the end of the test you should want to stop!

Yeouch!

Luckily I had convinced Nigel to join me at the pool for a swim so at least I wouldn't be alone.

Though if I'd been smart about it, I would have shared a lane with him and utilized his draft to enhance my performance.

Anyway...I eased on through the warmup sets, trying to ignore what was to come but eventually there I was with timed 10 x 100 all out (R:10) next on my list. I won't sugarcoat it - it hurt A LOT. I was reminded just how much swimming sucks.

And then it was over and I was getting out and emailing my results off to Coach. I didn't really think to look back and compare my total time to my last swim test in early September.

Imagine my surprise when she emailed me back to tell me I cut 12 seconds off my average 100 time!

Hmm. I guess this means I have to keep working at swimming. Damn.

After my swim, I headed over to the International Swim Center in Santa Clara to watch my youngest siblings - Mimi, Cai, Grace, Jack and Ryan - compete in what I am told is the biggest local swim meet. A few thousand kids + one pool = recipe for insanity!

The kids did awesome. They are such better swimmers than me that it's not even funny. Oh, their laughter when I told them my swim speed....good times.

Here is Jack in the 50 fly

Mimi in the 100 breast

Grace in the 100 breast

Ryan and Jack waiting to dive in the 50 breast

7 comments:

Marit C-L said...

Yea yea yea! Congratulations on a stellar job for your test! That's super! Those 100s really hurt! I've done that test many o' time... The first 2 or 3 feel okay, 4-6 is shakey, and the rest - urgh! It's like a red monkey or brown bear, or wizzard jumps on your back and you carry him/her/it ALL they way down the lane. Yeah for being :12 faster PER 100! You are a swimming stud! Chheers!

Stef0115 said...

Phenomenal improvement Molly! This bodes well for your 2009. Congrats!

Brandy said...

AWESOME JOB ON THE SWIM!!!!!! See, all your hard work is working!

So happy to be on this journey with such a dedicated athlete!

Eileen Swanson said...

Molly, you're a stud! Congrats on the swim PR! Woohoo ;-) Love the pics of your siblings, too cute ;-) Reid's sister, Zoe is also totally into swimming, I told you about her right?

Melissa said...

Awesome job on your swim test! That is a crazy-huge improvement! And aren't you so glad it's done and in the books too? Ha!

I love the swim meet photos :-)

ShirleyPerly said...

12 seconds per 100 improvement is AWESOME -- CONGRATS!!

I saw some kids on a swim team swimming over the holidays. Made me wish I'd started swimming much sooner. But better late than never!

Liz Waterstraat said...

Seriously, who drops 12 seconds per 100!?!?!?! :)