Yesterday was a day filled with mixed emotions and lots of thought provoking, tear jerking, questioning and reflecting. By five o'clock I knew the only way to relieve some of the heaviness weighing on my heart would be to take my emotions out for a nice long open water swim.

When I first got out there I completely forgot about everything that had transpired throughout the day. I could only focus on getting my breathing and kicking into a good rhythm. Taken back by the beautiful sunset I was getting to witness at water level, I knew that this was exactly what I needed.

Throughout the swim I would often find myself either going towards shore or heading out towards the sunset. I would try and swim in a straight line but I would often have to look up and correct my direction. On the way out I didn't really have a good focal point (which made things a little harder) but on the way back I was using a the biggest building in the Brickell area to guide me which made things much easier (though I still did swerve).

By the time I was making my way to the starting point, the sun was spectacularly setting with a bright red hue that almost made it seem as if Miami was burning. Only problem was that I was quickly starting to notice the water getting darker. The group of swimmers had spread out a lot and so there were points where I felt all alone.  That's when I stopped to tread water for a second and look around for the other swim caps. They were all still out there. From water level I couldn't really see them but as I lifted my head a little more, the kaleidoscope of colored swim caps appeared and disappeared before me.

I came to the conclusion (at about the 3rd booey from the finish) that it's okay to swerve, lose sight of your focal point momentarily, even panic when you feel all alone in an ocean that is quickly getting darker....as long as  in those moments we  try lifting our head a little more to notice that we are actually surround by many others---just like us, going in the same direction, with their eyes on the same goals. We are not alone on this journey. And sometimes, all it takes for us to regain perspective is a little pause, a couple seconds of treading water, for us to be able to continue confidently in the direction we were headed. 
#justkeepswimming #lookup #lookaround #harddays #theraputictraining #itsofficial

Workout Thoughts:
Yesterday I got out to La Salle at 6:45pm to get a Track workout in. Upon arriving...An eerie, quiet, familiar, yet ghostly ambiance filled the air. I hadn't been on that cement track in 10 years, and it still managed to look EXACTLY the same, with the exception of some new grass patches that have grown between the lanes, and faded lines. If I closed my eyes, I could see myself lining up to the 2 mile race, Montalvo in the Green Announcer Tower, Coach Martinez with his Belen Cap by the High Jump mat, and my heart throbbing so loud I could hear it. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lining up for 4, 1 mile repeats with essentially a group of strangers and some familiar faces...in an emotional tug-0-war  between the past and the present.

The best part of this workout was being held accountable for showing up, and finishing the workout. There are times we say we will do something, but then we "excuse" our way out of it by rationalizing and our training tends to get the short end of the stick.

The group that was out there doing runs varied in age and pace...and that's what makes running so amazing, we all lined up on that track for the same workout.

I was conservative in my goal pace setting, thinking that it had been a long week, and an even longer day...not to mention the crazy hot humid weather...so I shot for 6:35/6:40pace (which I know my running partner, Paola, would have crindged at the mear thought of anything above 6 minutes). To my surprise, I came through the first lap at 1:25, first half mile right under 3 minutes, and then just tried to keep it even (with no watch) but ended up holding back a little to come by the first mile in 6:15.

Clearly it was below my goal pace but I felt great and smooth, so I didn't want to hold back too much. In workouts and runs, some of us tend to err on the side of caution and HOLD BACK so that we don't DIE in the middle of the run...but that's what workouts are for! They are meant for us to push ourselves to that point where we HURT like we are going to throw up, that our legs go so fast that they are going to unhindge, and that our  heart pumps so hard it feels like it's going to pump right out of our hearts.

So to not bore you with more times, I'll just tell you that I kept it steady, around the same pace for the next 2 and then pushed on the last one, not at hard as I could, but harder than I had initially planned.

As I came around the track on the last lap, the full moon was already nice and bright, and the sun was almost done setting. It was a great feeling to run that barefoot cool-down drenched in sweat, feeling tired, feeling strong, feeling down-right happy.

Try the workout out and see what times you hit. 

-Happy Running