Edit; Hmmm, a sudden surge in interest in this post on a day where I get abused? So you do know behind the front page I can see where traffic is coming from, right? Chuckle.

-I’d had a bad morning. It had been the worst day I had this year, I think. So I went for a swim, ’cause that’s part of who I am now. It had to be in a hostile environment. Very hostile. So I put on the armour I worked hard for, the Irish green, and which I am very proud to wear. ‘Cause you know you can talk all you want, but you don’t get the green because you know how to say “energy systems”. You earn it.

Donal, Ciarán, Coach Eilís, Jen, Rob, Gábor

So I sauntered in. And I looked at them. And I smiled.

And as I swam I told myself: “This doesn’t matter, you are the swimmer here.  You have friends that you love helping out and swimming with. There are people out there whom seem to respect what you say. You can feel the water. There’s only one way to get that feel, and it’s not on paper. You’re 1134. No-one can take that away. And yesterday you passed half a million metres for the year so far, maybe it’s time for some more chart porn. You know how you love charts. And what about the crazy swimming idea you had yesterday? We need to work on that. Go find some figures for that equation from last night and arrange some testing with Clare. We might be able to get Alan C. involved. Hey, a swimmer travelling across the Atlantic to train with me! “

But by that stage I was probably approaching schizophrenia territory. So I busted out a fast (for me) 10 x 200m main set ’cause I am swimming better this year, I hope… It all went better than expected, (the swimming that is).

Other WordPress users, especially Evan, I love the new WordPress Just Write feature!

Coming soon: the whole story.