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Unforgiving Minute

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it...
–Rudyard Kipling
Anne Dunivin
How true that is for the last couple days. First, it was the USMS Nationals swim meet from Friday to Sunday at Greensboro. Long story short, I came in last in almost all my events. But I've learned that I just have to take it all in, whatever life, day, or the moment brings. There were anxiety, nervousness, pain, and breathlessness, but there were also thrill, joy, and satisfaction. The unforgiving minute(s) will pass. What matters at the end is what you've filled it with. With that thought, I dove in to swim my 200 & 500 Free, 200 IM, and a couple relays. The picture on the left is 95-year-old Anne Dunivin. She just set the 1000 freestyle record for her age group and she shall be my inspiration.

Secondly, this week I'm doing three consecutive days of 2.5-hour treadmill run for the recovery supplement study at Appalachian State University. Yes, I volunteered. Yesterday was the first day. The five of us who are running for the study this week will run two hours and 15 minutes on the treadmill at 75% of our VO2 max. For the last 15 minutes, we have full control of our speed. After the first hour yesterday, they upped my speed a little. And today, after an hour of running and checking my VO2 max, they upped the speed a little again. I felt all of the 0.1 mph they added on. Who would have thought? At any rate, I survived two days -- a cumulative of 300 unforgiving minutes. Physically unforgiving, that is. I walked off the treadmill today like I just finished my first marathon.

Here's to another 150 unforgiving minutes to fill with 9000 seconds of distance run tomorrow.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 3, 2012 at 11:40 AM

    wow, 95 years old - she looks great!!

    that treadmill experiment sounds like pure torture to me. congrats on getting through it.

    Emily

    ReplyDelete

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