Get It, Girl

I am so pumped about Diana Nyad completing her swim from Cuba to Florida. What a bad ass and an inspiration for everyone, young, old, male, female. I mean, whatever your excuse is for not actively working towards your goal, you should really check yourself and think if a 64 year old woman swam with sharks, jellyfish and god knows what other sea creatures around her and she reached one of her life long goals, what's stopping you from getting off the couch and achieving yours?

On the beach, Nyad told reporters this (which has become my new mantra, btw): "I have three messages. One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you're never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team."

The first and third messages really resonate with me right now, especially after this week hearing that there's a possibility I might have to have a third surgery on my right shoulder, a ligament reconstruction (sounds pretty shitty to me). For the next six weeks I cannot do any sort of exercise that involves me raising my right arm above my head - no hanging from the rig, no wall balls, no clean and jerks, nothing. At first I was pissed to hear the doctor say this, but as I was driving from the doctor's office to the gym, I thought, wow, maybe instead of feeling sorry for myself for the next six weeks and giving up, I should use this time as an opportunity to work on my lower body weakness. So that's my focus for the next month and a half. Work on squats, double unders, low back strength and my clean form. I am still a little bummed because there are two local competitions coming up that I wanted to compete in and now cannot, but there will be more competitions and right now I need to focus on getting better because surgery would totally suck and rehabbing it for four months would suck even more.

The third message, as a life-long swimmer, kind of makes me emotional. Technically yes, swimming is a solitary sport and I've spent way too much time starting at the bottom of a pool alone with my thoughts, but if it wasn't for the amazing teammates, coaches and other support I've had over the years, I absolutely wouldn't be the person or athlete I am today and I also wouldn't have the awesome friends and memories I have from swimming...like happy crying for the first time when we won the Tennessee high school state championship my junior year or being allowed to get my belly button pierced with my three teammates because our relay made the Illinois high school state meet. Actually, thinking back, all of the girls, except one (Fluffs), who I would call my closest or best friends in life, I swam with growing up or in college. So I guess to get all sentimental on you, what I'm trying to say is, tonight while I'm all excited about Diana Nyad, but I'm also thinking about and so thankful for all the kick ass, strong girls that have come into my life because of swimming.