Endless Pool

I was talking with one of our teammates who works at Google. He told me that they have one of those Endless Pools in their gym. For those who don't know, this is one of those inventions you may have seen in your late-night-don't-admit-to-anyone-that-you-watch-infomercials-with-glee. It's a small pool, about 15 feet long, just long enough for you to do a few swim strokes. The water has some sort of strong jet that create a current, which you swim against. In essence, you are going absolutely no where, like a salmon swimming up stream. Only, you don't actually make it upstream, and hopefully you don't die at the end of your swim.

Anyhow, this got me to thinking about how we do the same thing over and over and over again. For example, this weekend I took about:

6000 steps (2 mile run)
2000 strokes (2500 meter swim)
7200 revolutions (18 miles bike ride)

It's pretty mind-boggling when you think about how far you can get by doing the same thing over and over and over again. And all of this repetition adds up to a whole lot.

The weekend works out were great. My friend Diana came out to ride with us, so we had a nice chat on our bike ride. Diana and I first met on a bike ride through Tiburon last season. It was my first bike with my clipless pedals. She was probably trying to chat with me then, but I only remember two things about that day, really. 1) Our coach riding behind both us and saying, "Melissa, keep your heels down." and "Diana, relax your shoulders." and 2) The blinding and catastrophic fear I had of having to actually unclip and come to a complete stop.

So on this past Sunday, Diana and I were once again riding together. This time, I do remember having a lovely conversation with her. My fear of stopping has diminished to more of a quiet zing in my stomach that flares up only when I approach cars or a crowd of people.

The same coach rides up behind us and says, "Ladies, Have I taught you nothing? Melissa, keep your heels down. Diana, relax your shoulders." Ah! We are caught in the Endless Pool of training and bad form. Hopefully, we will be able to break out one of these days!