Ambition Should Be Made of Sterner Suff

As part of my workout this morning, I decided to time myself swimming a mile (roughly 1800 yards in the pool or 36 laps). Of course, being a master excuse maker, after 1,000, I thought about checking the clock. After 1,500, I reminded myself that I'd gone a "swimmer's mile," and tried to convince myself to stop. Fortunately, I was able to ignore my inner lazy-butt, and finish the mile I'd set out to swim. It took me a little over 27 minutes, which means that I was averaging more than 45 seconds per lap.

The thing about long distance swims is that they offer you plenty of time to think. It's just you and two white walls in there. During this morning's swim I was doing some math in my head. I've stated before that by the time of the big race, I'd like to be swimming a mile in 20 minutes. This morning I realized that my goal might be a little too ambitious. After all, if I can get each of my 50's down to a clean 45 second average, that would still only take me 1,333, yards in 20 minutes. In order to swim a mile in 20 minutes, I would have to cut my average time per lap down to just 34 seconds. Now, I can do a 34 second lap. In fact, I can probably do several of them. I truly doubt, however, that I could do 36 of them consecutively.

My new goal is to cut my average time per lap down to 40 seconds. That's a pretty significant improvement over my current speed, and it would allow me to finish a "swimmer's mile" (1,500) in 20 minutes.

I really hate the idea of backing down from a goal, but I also do not want to be setting myself up for frustration later. I hope that I’m striking a good balance between setting goals that are ambitious and goals that are attainable. After all, if after training my butt off for the next three months I am punching out my 50 yard laps in 34 seconds, how psyched will I be!