An IMer's Lament - posted at 08:23

To: Mimi, Swim Coach Extraordinaire

Re: Your claim that people who are good at 400 IMs have no right to complain about them

I don't care how fantastic at 400 IMs you are, those suckers hurt. Sure, we still like them, and it just so happens that the streak of glutton-for-punishment present in all swimmers happens to run deeper in the IMers, but geez, I mean, ow!

Plus, you're just playing dirty when you break it into its constituent parts and still call it an IM set. Sure, I'll do all the strokes in a row without stopping, but you want me to swim just a 100 fly? Now I'm no different from any other swimmer! :)

But hey, even though I pretend to bitch about it every once in a while, I get way too much satisfaction out of swimming those sets. Nothing tells me I am doing something good for my body any better than the lactic acid that sets in during the midst of a really killer set, the total body exhaustion that follows a good workout, and the oh-my-god-I-could-eat-the-world hunger that inevitably sets in after them.

But yes, you are probably correct about me being crazy when you tell me how many 400 IMs I'll be swimming in practice that day and you are immediately awarded with a big grin. But, hey, I'm a swimmer.... Crazy comes with the territory.