This One Goes To Eleven

Happy 2011 everyone! I went to bed last night dreaming of cinnamon rolls. Know why? No, not because I'm swearing off of flour and sugar and all that nasty stuff in just two days (ulp!), but because one of our Master's swimmers is married to this woman who bakes the best cinnamon rolls on the face of the earth. No, really. The Best. And he brings them to our annual New Year's swim, for those hardy swimmers who complete the challenge need an enticing reward at the end to soothe their tired bodies and replenish the massive amounts of carbohydrates burned.

For it was the day of the annual "Year in Fifties" workout. This year in honor of 2011, it was 111 Fifties, on the :45 interval. Yes, on the interval. Whooboy. That interval starts off not feeling too awful tough, but by about the ninetieth fifty, it's feeling like you only get a few seconds to breathe and you're off again. Unluckily, I got stuck in the swim order behind a guy I'm going to start calling "Don the Knife" because he's built about like a knife blade and he has the draft of one as well. So although I only led every 3rd set of 10 fifties, it felt like I might as well have been leading all of them. Luckily, at about lap number ninety, a point where felt like my arms were going to turn into wet noodles and stop working, I got to go behind Dave the Tidal Wave, a swimmer so fast and so mighty that I felt like I was back in California body surfing and all I had to do was wave my hands around in the water a bit and move my feet and there I was back at the wall again. That got me through the last couple of sets and on into the hot tub where I was handed the Best Cinnamon Roll in the World Today.

And thus started the year of 2011. I hope your year has started as happily as mine, looking forward to a wonderful trip around the sun.