Swim Days

I am debating whether or not to take my daily swim today. The pool averages about 84.5 degrees this summer, which is agreeable, but I am so tired I think I'd rather sleep.

Despite all my swimming-talk I have a confession. And it is that I have always sucked at front-crawl swimming. Also known as freestyle swimming, this form of aquatic locomotion is graceful and powerful to behold. Unless you are watching me swim, in which case you will be treated to a spectacle more closely described as artful drowning.

Typically I cruise along at a respectable 1 knots-per-hour with the breast stroke, which I have secretly renamed "froggy style." But even so, I have still desired to plow through the wet like the other free-stylers: those quick and graceful swimmers who look more like they're being pulled along on a conveyor belt because they move with so little effort.

So I've been practicing freestyle one agonizing lap at a time and ever so slowly I am coming closer to the prize.