Early Swim and baring a little soul

I’ve been in Boulder for about 4 weeks now and today was the first day that I got up early enough in the morning, on a work day, to get in a swim before I headed to work.
Huzzah!
It really is the small victories in life that matter. I could look at this as an “it’s about time” type of situation because I’ve been trying for a while, but I know I’m not a morning person, I knew that making that adjustment to being out the door at 6 am or earlier would be a very difficult one for me to make. It’s one thing when it’s a special event like a race or something like that. There’s a subconscious sense of urgency that we, or at least I, seem to keep through my sleep so that once I wake up, I’m really awake, and often before my alarm goes off, even if it’s hours before I usually wake up.
It’s another thing entirely when trying to make such early morning a part of your daily routine. Especially when you’re used to being up until 1 or 2 am and sleeping until 10 (on those days when I was able to get sufficient sleep, which was very few the last month or so of school).

I admit too, that I was slightly intimidated by the morning swims. In part I expected them to be very crowded, but also to find a lot of really, really good swimmers there. I'm not in Kansas (Ohio) anymore Toto, there are some SCARY good swimmers out there. That can be very intimidating at times, especially if you end up having to share a lane with one. To go and just watch someone who swims like Mark does for instance, doing 1:05’s per 100 meters would be really cool and I’ve definitely hung around after workouts and watched some of the better swimmers, especially when the swim team was practicing at UC (I swear it wasn’t for the girls in bathing suits… ok, maybe it was a tiny bit). But getting in the pool with them is a little different and sharing a lane would be very different. it's also a little different competing at a Stroke N Stride or a race than having it there every day while you train.
I suppose that sounds like an insecurity, and I think in some ways it is. More than that though, I feel liek I should be a better swimmer than I am. I grew up in the water, I'm very comfortable and at home in the water and it's a little frustrating sometimes that I essentially had to start from scratch last fall.

But, to my relief, I had no trouble finding an open lane and had a largely positive 3100 yard workout. I started out a little strong I think and the last 500 wasn’t pretty as far as time, but I didn’t feel bad or anything. I was slightly sore, but not tired. Although I wouldn’t say no to a nap right now…