“You remember the stories John use to
tell us about the the three chinamen playing Fantan? This guy runs up to them
and says, "Hey, the world's coming to an end!" and the first one
says, "Well, I best go to the mission and pray," and the second one
says, "Well, hell, I'm gonna go and buy me a case of Mezcal and six
whores," and the third one says "Well, I'm gonna finish the
game." I shall finish the game, Doc.”
William H.
Bonney, Young Guns II
“Billy!
Let's finish the game!”
Doc
Scurlock, Young Guns II
It’s a
couple of lines from an adequate sequel that will probably stick with me for a
long time. Whether they were truly every spoken by these two who knows. The people are real enough, but Hollywood and
her liberties, who knows if, but I love the lines. I found myself in the pool today saying them
over and over. “Billy, Let’s finish the
game.”
I am not
going to lie, I am sore from yesterday’s 3,000 meters, however, the only I can
beat last months meterage? Is that a
word? Mileage is a word, so therefore
shouldn’t meterage. I don’t often speak
in meters therefore I don’t know. Ok
free on-line dictionary says it’s a word and since I believe everything I read
on the World Wide Web, it must be true.
I was sore and tired and I wanted to stay in bed all day. However, I got up. Went to M’s for my coffee and Egg
McMuffin. Watch a little Better off Ted
and then decided it was time to swim.
I knew
before I ever got off the couch I didn’t want to do a lot of pulling and
stroking, lol, I did enough of that the night before. In the pool, come on, pervs! So, I was going to do this kick routine I
found on-line the day after Thanksgiving.
It was a monster workout that consisted of 3,100 meters. Hell the warm-up alone of 1200 meters too 40
plus minutes. The kicking on the burn
consisted of 1800 meters with fins.
That’s a lot of fucking kicking, 61% of my total distance was all
legs. I guess which is good because my
arms were toast already.
My legs
burned. I mean really burned. It was hard.
That’s a lot of kicking. I have
not kicked that much since throwing a tantrum when my mom wouldn’t buy me
something. I swear the Avengers on Blu-ray
weren’t that much. She could have
totally sprung for it. Anyway, that is not the point.
After every
burn with the flippers on, I would have to take them off and swim the
breaststroke. If you never have swum a
lot with flippers they can be great but they can be a bitch too. The problem with flippers or fins, whatever
you want to call them is they rub. They
rub and the rub and they rub. So as you
kick and kick and kick, they rub, rub, rub.
So much to the point that they start to rub your skin off and your feat
start to feel like they have rug burns on them.
As I sit here now and look at my raw toes, I am thinking, what the fuck
was I thinking. After the 400 kick first
one hard the next three easy with 20 seconds in between, I felt so tired. My legs felt like jelly. I had nothing left. I did my 100 breast and collected my
thoughts. I would finish kicking, but I
would leave the fins off. No, I don’t
want to do that. That is foolish. Well, then I will put the fins back on but I
won’t do what it says and do the first hard, the 2nd easy, the 3rd
hard. I will just go easy. I will just finish. Isn’t that really the
point is just to finish. Then my mind
did a 180 on me and started to think about her.
Then it flipped again and thought about the proper pot of chili I was
going to make. Then the channel changed
again and it thought about nights that the bottom of a glass of whiskey, and my
misspent youth. Anything to not think
about kicking more.
I raised
myself out of the water and forced the fins back onto my feet. Let me tell you that plastic feels great
rubbing against the burns that my toes already had. I forced them on. I read my paper 4 x 75 kick – first and last
25 as fast as you can go. Fuck that shit
I think I am going to go slow. I am just
going to kick this thing out. I push off
the wall and well my legs betray me.
They kick; they kick, and kick as hard as they can. I am across the pool in a flash and I turn, I
turn hard and fast. I slow down, the 2nd
is easy and I must go easy. I kick. My mind tries to drift, her, booze, Ka, new
sweaters, etc.… but I focus on the kick.
I hit the wall and I turn and I am like just kick, not hard, just kicking. So my legs betray me again and they go just
as hard as they can as fast as they can and before I know it I am on the wall wheezing
like an old goat. I am like well I am
certainly not going to do that again and that when I say it. I say it out loud thru shortened breaths
“Billy! Let’s finish the game!” So, I
explode off the wall and I kick as hard as I can and I know my kicks are slower
because I don’t have the energy but I kick and I kick and I kick. I hit the wall and we go back “Fuck it’s
hard, but I shall finish the game!” I
hit the wall and I am off again. “I
shall finish the game!” My legs don’t
have it but they push and they push because “Billy, Let’s finish the
game!” Each one of the next two 75’s got
slower, but that’s ok because I pushed the entire time. I never gave up. I finished the game. I pull the fins off and did another 25 breast
stroke. Again, I thought about her. I thought about Ka. I thought about the
tower. I thought about wild nights. I thought about what I would eat after the
pool. I thought about everything I could to not answer the one question that
was on my mind. The final leg of this swim
4 x 50 kick, ALL LAPS FAST! I didn’t
want to think about that. I didn’t want to do that. I had nothing left. My breaststroke was so fucking sloppy; you
wouldn’t believe it, so sloppy. I wasn’t even getting my head under the
water. I finished the 100 breast and I
put my head on the wall and I said I don’t have anymore burns in me. Then I said it again “Billy, Let’s finish the
game!” So I pulled the fins back on over
the sores on my toes. I was in the
shallow water on my haunches, with my shoulders fully out of the water. I closed my eyes and I thought about KA. The wheel that is KA and I thought about the
tower and who I want to be and how I want to live my life. Then I exploded off the wall and I kicked
with everything I had down and back.
Then I went back on my haunches with shoulders out of the water in the 40-degree
weather (so stop whining all you people on face book, 40 is better than where I
am going in a few weeks.) Then I did it again. Everything I had went into those kicks.
Everything. I was grunting on the way
back. Then back to my haunches. 40 seconds later, I was off again. Then one more time back into my meditation
position. The cold on my shoulder felt
good. The feeling that I was on the path
of the beam was there. 40 seconds later, I am off and grunts and gritted teeth
and all, I pushed and pushed and down and back and I finished the game! I finished the game.
And the
Tower is Closer!!!!
Let’s finish
the GAME!
Today’s
3100 meters was done in 1:51:29 and was as follows:
Monster kick
Warm-up1,200
1 x 400 (:20 Swim and drill mix. Do drills for technique practice for one length, then
swim for one length, then repeat.
1 x 400 (:20 Kick. First 25 of each at a moderate effort, the rest of each
is easy.
1 x 400 (:20 Pull. First 25 of each at a moderate effort, the rest of each
is easy.
Take some extra rest if needed, sip some water or sports drink, and get
ready for the main set.
Main Set
4 x 50 (:20 Kick. Desc 1-4. That means each kick is faster than the one
before it.
1 x 100 (:20 Swim. Any way you want to do it.
4 x 75 (:20 Kick. The last 25 of each 75 is as fast as you can kick; the
first 50 is easy.
1 x 100 (:20 Swim. Any way you want to do it.
4 x 100 (:20 Kick. The first 25 of each 100 is as fast as you can kick; the
remainder of each is easy.
1 x 100 (:20 Swim. Any way you want to do it.
4 x 75 (:40 Kick. The first and last 25 of each 75 is as fast as you can
kick; the middle 25 is easy.
1 x 100 (:20 Swim. Any way you want to do it.
4 x 50 (:40 Kick. Fast. All of them!
1 x 100 Swim. Loosen a bit more, collect your thoughts, and you are done
TOTAL DISTANCE = 3,100
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