pinnacle

Since my last run of injuries (pun intended) I have had to face the fact that I need to be cross-training if I want to continue to run 50-70k per week. When I had to give up running for a month in October I naturally went to swimming because any other option involved going to the gym. I don't love it, but given the right conditions, a lane to myself and the deep end of the pool, I can get into a nice flow (again, intended) and the hour will pass quickly. I find my mind wanders the same way it does when I run, maybe a little differently because swimming is so completely rhythmic. The breathing every third stroke, kicking in continuous cadence, hit the wall, turn, repeat. Every once in a while I sign up for a reciprocal session that our local rec centre has with a local hotel and use their pool to swim laps in the middle of the week. There are pro's to this, only 6 people can register so you are pretty much guaranteed a lane to yourself and the scenery from the pool is a stunning view over the water to downtown. The con's are that the pool is dirty, shallow and kept too warm for real athletic swimming. What I love most about it though are the other swimmers. They are all seniors. They chat in the change room about lovely things and about their swimming and life. My favourite woman has got to be close to seventy, she swims three times a week for 50 minutes and has done for 15 years. One day she got stuck in her jacket because her zipper got caught and she couldn't get it open with her arthritic hands. She took the jacket off over her head, put on her suit and hit the pool. She's got moxy.

I know money can't buy happiness. I know this. The thing is, I need money to buy the freedom to explore all the things I want to explore. A lottery win would be great right about now. There are so many places I want to go, so many things I want to do...I would say that maybe this a condition of being '40' except that I've always been this way. Honestly, I find it surprising that I'm still this way since I always assumed that the drive to keep trying new things would dissipate with age. So, Santa, there's my Christmas wish - a moderate lottery win. Think you can do it?