Every Saturday at 7:30 AM (well, sometimes more like 7:40 AM) I reluctantly lower myself into the cold Dedham Community Pool (think of me some morning while you’re still cozy in bed).  This is my weekly coached swim workout, and if I’m being honest, it’s the only time I really push myself in the pool…which is why I go.  Kim has been our coach for the past year or so and she is always keeping it interesting.   This Saturday will be particularly interesting as she has challenged us to do a 5000 yard workout.  For those of you who don’t swim, 5000 yards is 200 lengths of the pool or 100 laps (a lap being down and back).  It also happens to be about 2000 more yards than we typically swim on a Saturday…in fact the last time I swam 5000 yards I was probably in high school.  Oddly, I’m finding myself excited about this challenge, although admittedly the promise of a special “5000 yards Before Coffee” t-shirt has something to do with it (and the fact that I already have a drawer full of race t-shirts makes the whole thing ridiculous). 

So today I am challenging you…not to do a 5000 yard swim (unless you want to, of course) but to come up with some kind of exercise-related challenge for yourself.  What can you do that is more than you usually do?  What would it take to make you feel you had really done something “above and beyond” what you normally do?  Come up with something, post it here, and then DO IT (and report back).  “Join” me on Saturday morning (I will be in the pool by 7, which really means 7:10) or whenever you can find time over the next week to complete your challenge.  I’ll bet you will feel great when you’re done!