One Thirty Seven

If I say the number 137, that probably doesn't mean much to anyone.

If I do what I do when I want to annoy my family and ask you to "guess what??", you probably won't guess and, after a few tries, probably won't care too much either.

That's ok. I'm not bothered. Most people, I've found, don't like to make random guesses at things while an excited person just keeps saying "nope, guess again".

So I'll tell you what 137 means, and why I care.

Last Friday, we swam 100m as fast as we possibly could. I did it in 1 minute and 37 seconds.

That is super duper fast for me. I used to struggle to break 2:00. Then 1:55. Then 1:50. Doing anything under 1:50 with any kind of consistency is still a struggle.

Last Friday, I swam a 1:37 and actually felt in control the whole way. Not once did I think "I can't hold it". Not once did I think that this might be the day when I finally throw up in the pool. I just blasted through it, touched the wall and looked up in anticipation as I waited to hear my time.

1:37.

Now, I must clarify a few things.

This is not something I think I could do without all the work that we did before. Friday's session was cords and buckets which means that we were working hard while tethered to the wall or while pulling buckets behind us.

Usually a cords and buckets workout feels like a slow slog. Things were changed up a little bit this time.

When tethered to the stretch cord, we were told we had to go 'all out' for one minute. We would get 90 seconds to recover and then do it again. Four time. Going all out for 30 seconds is fine. Forty seconds sucks. Fifty seconds is ridiculous. One minute takes almost as much mental strength as it does physical.

After the cords, we moved over to the bucket lane and were told to do 4x50m sprints on 2:00. Pulling two buckets behind us.

Then back to the cords. Then back to the buckets. By the end, we were all pretty exhausted and many were nauseated too. I was exhausted and smiling. I love this workout!

We were told that the last thing on the list was a 100m sprint - without cords or buckets. Free as birds.

I pushed off the wall and feel like I was flying.

When I got back I heard the number 137.

And I grinned!