NYC to Bermuda Swim Goal Completed

I completed another of my mini-goals today, which I started at the beginning of 2007. This one was the distance from New York City to Bermuda. Sure I did it over 517 swim days, but there it is - 775 miles.

I've set up these goals to keep me going. Seems to be working so far.

Onward to London!

Milestone #4 Completed - Swam Lake Michigan (Length)

I've completed my fourth milestone in my swim the Atlantic challenge begun 1/2/2007. Today I finished the equivalent distance of the length of Lake Michigan (from Gary, Indiana to Manistique, Minnisota - 320 miles). To date I've done the English Channel, Lake Michigan's width, Cuba to Miami, and this Lake Michigan length swim (all from the comfort of a chlorinated pool). Next goal is Bermuda from New York City. Don't see that happening until end of next year at the earliest. Must find something I can achieve between now and then to keep these dominoes falling and my enthusiasm going. Any ideas?

Milestone Reached

Sometime last year when I was doing some laps and trying to make my fuzzy brain (it gets that way when I work out) do a simple distance swam calculation, I figured out that I could achieve a respectable distance goal and complete a half-million meters in a year, if I just followed my regular routine. Well today's the day, campers - I hit the mark and then some - it isn't even the middle of November yet. As of this AM, I'm at 501,555 meters since Jan 1, 2007. That's over 10,000 circular laps or over 20,000 lengths of a 25 meter pool. These numbers amaze me. Hope I can keep it up. These milestones help for sure.

Bored with Laps? Add'm Up and Go Places

If you've spent any time looking at this blog template, you've noticed the left hand side has among other things, my distance goals over time. I came up with the idea of distance goals for my lap swimming when I started getting bored. Going back and forth, over and over and over and over (etc., etc., etc.) can get pretty dull. Setting personal fitness goals helped, but I never felt like I was getting anywhere. One day, I did a little mental math during a quieter lap and figured that in a year, I could do over 300,000 meters. I was floored, when I considered the possibilities. I started thinking of all the places I could go, if I really could add all these laps together, and that's how I came up with my goals. Since then, it's been fun to daily add to my progress and see how far I've come, and this is only the first year. I recommend this application to anyone who does repetitive travel oriented exercise e.g., running, treadmills, rowing, you name it. The long term goals keep you going and you can look back and proudly see where you've been. Besides that, people can relate to a swim to Bermuda more than say, 12,500 one-hundred meter laps.