cutting class

My former biking buddy, who is now my former running buddy who is trying to get me into mountain biking, and I were running one cold morning around Lake Chabot. This is one of my favorite runs, because even though it's a lake, it still has hills. Unlike some lakes I could mention.

As we ran, I waxed poetic for the nth time about my swim class: it's so much fun! just like gym class! I just show up and am told what to do! My effervescence prompted my buddy to comment that he'd never heard me so happy. (Of course, I beg to differ. Has he never heard me gush about Axel?) He's right, though. I love this class; it is the best thing that happened to me in 2007.

For a long, long time, I have tried to swim first thing in the mornings. It's never worked, either because I simply can't drag myself out of the warm bed to get in the cold water, or because someone emits subsonic guilt waves if I leave bed before the sun comes up. And it's not because I'm not a morning person: I am, beyond any question, a morning person. So for years I've made promises to myself and eked out promises from Mychal to help me get up early and get to the pool. In the past decade, I probably made it four times.

Which was really a pity, because swimming in the morning is like magic for me. I start the day in a fabulous mood and finish it with a not-too-crappy one. What more could I ask for?

So a series of serendipitous events brought my swim class:
1) In a huff, I dropped my Oakland Y membership after another impossible lap workout with people doing head-above-the-water breaststroke and "running" in the fast lane. (Although, in all honesty, is it really running if he's also doing karate kicks?)
2) I couldn't convince myself that I would drive thirty minutes to the Berkeley Y to play Russian roulette with their swim lane speeds.
3) I met a woman, on a group ride one Saturday, who described an incredible swim coach at a pool that just happens to be spitting distance from my house.

Now I wake up three mornings a week at 5:30 in exchange for my endorphin dose. We meet four days a week, so that the one day a week I can't get myself out of bed and into the pool, I'm in a pissy mood. Which brings me to my Chinese New Year's resolution (since I've already broken my Western New Year's resolution): no more ditching class!