Lesson of the day:  Laurin is not superhuman.

I’m not the kind of swimmer that can eat/drink while training.  Some people can go through bottles of Gatorade and multiple granola bars and bananas during a practice and feel awesome – I take a few sips of water and immediately succumb to side cramps.  I knew this was going to have to be addressed sometime soon – I’d be a moron to think I can swim for 10 hours straight without refueling!  But for my swim this morning, I figured, eh, 3 hours, that’s not so long, right?  I’ll be fine with my bottle of (5 calorie) strawberry Crystal Light.

Or not…

It started out auspiciously enough.  I showed up to the 7:45am masters workout figuring I’d start things off with them and then keep going during the lap swim time to follow.  During the first hour, I felt great!  That is, however, until the calories provided by the measly granola bar I’d had for breakfast burned off.  Hmm…maybe I should have brought along that GU stuff swears by…eh, oh well, one hour down, two to go, it’s not so bad!

By the end of hour 2, I was starting to hurt, which was weird for me – I wasn’t going at a particularly fast pace or anything, so I didn’t see why my body should feel so tired.  The Crystal Light was almost gone by now – it looked rather ominous.  However, I’d committed to 3 hours before jumping in, gosh darn it, I was going to stay in for another hour even if it killed me!

3 hours and 11,800 yards later, I could barely move.  It was pretty sad, actually…as I limped along through the water, I could feel every muscle in my arms and back searing, and every joint from my hips down ached.  I crashed – hard.

Note to self:  next time, force something down whether you want it or not!

Right now, though, I need a nap.