Pulp Free

It’s Monday now. That means that I’m already in my first day of no Olympics. I’ve been carefully getting in my several hours of High Def coverage a day (along with a few hours of standard definition… ugh…) and have enjoyed every bit of it. TiVo made it a joy to watch as I could zip through 8 hour segments without missing events in between…

But nevertheless, it’s over. It’s a little depressing… Like the end of a party that you just didn’t want to ever end. And that’s what has really made me impressed with the Olympics. Here’s why:

It’s a celebration.

16 days of glory, defeat, close calls and the power of the human body. While there are a few events that bring the mechanical into the events - most telling are essentially the story of incredible athleticism and human strength pairing off in competition to declare the world’s best. You can see it on all of the faces of the athletes as they compete, rich - poor, veterans to first time Olympians - all put their best into the effort to win. It’s different than a World’s Series - a Super Bowl or the World’s Cup. It’s a culmination of 4 years of non-stop effort with a 2-week adrenaline party… Who wants that to end?

The world’s problems seem to take a break.

That’s not to say that the Russian/Georgian conflict didn’t take place or hurricane Fay wasn’t the on the minds of Floridians… But the talk, the news, the discussions with friends, families, co-workers and strangers were mostly about the amazing Olympic events. And knowing that there’s plenty of bad news to be seen every night on the news concerning political, financial, global and local crisis… It was truly refreshing to leave those behind for two weeks.

Chance to change your outlook in life.

I’m sure we’ve all had the moments in life that prompt us to become better… to change. Move a different direction or just take a long breath and open your eyes to opportunities. Watching athletes like Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jason Lezak do the unimaginable makes me want to accomplish more. World records falling the most this year than any other Olympic competition requires a dedication to a new mindset.

Funny enough as I was putting my thoughts together on this, I came across another mind set message from Monika Mundell:

Feel it. Smell it. Dream it. Live it.

Olympic mind sets: Determination, Strength, Hard Working, Motivation, Ability To Deal With Adversity, Optimistic and Positive Perspective, Strong Focus, High Stress Tolerance

There is no doubt that Olympians are hard working. You need to learn the difference between hard working while unfocused, or hard working with focus and intention.

Many people fail exactly at this stage. They try really hard, all the while thinking that they are doing the right thing, when in reality they waste a lot of their energies for unnecessary things that don’t fit in with their vision.

There is nothing wrong with working hard - but you have to work smart to make it work.

While this could bubble down into a quirky motivation message, I truly believe that the Olympics provide a chance to check yourself. Take time to think about what could be and to map a way to make a difference. Perhaps a few too many NBC Olympic featurettes have been snuck into my subliminal TiVo watching… But I have to believe that the there is a communal goodness that can come from the efforts, accomplishment and motivation that these gifted athletes have shown over the last few weeks. The party does end at some point… And I suppose today is that day… But that just means 18 months to go for the Winter Games!

I used to swim when I was younger… Younger as in grade school & junior high. Lots of really early mornings to swim before school. Then weekends spent going to swim meets all over the region. I have a few medals and ribbons and what-nots. Even some nice heat-winning Coke and Pepsi cans… So you can obviously expect I’ve been really excited that the Olympics are finally here and so much attention being paid to the men and women’s swimming events. (Although I’m traveling this week so I’m really missing out on all that HD coverage!!)

So with the fantastic 4×100 freestyle relay Gold-place finish of the US Men’s team on Sunday night - I thought it would be a fun effort to see just how fast I was compared to the world record time that Jason Lezak laid down on the last leg of that race (I know, I know - it doesn’t count as a world record since he didn’t have the first leg… but it is “still” the fastest!)

Jason swam his 4th leg in 46.06 seconds. That’s 100 meters. Of course, my swimming efforts at the Lodge are in yards. The pool is a bit larger than a wading pool… (It’s also a cool wave pool… ) That makes one trip down the lane at 25 yards. How slow do I float down those lanes? A lap for me down and back is 40 seconds (the first time… it’s slower after each lap!) The makes it roughly 42.12 seconds for 100 yards - for grins cut that in half for 21.06 seconds for 50 yards… In which I swim in 40 seconds… My 100 meter swim would be about 87.49 seconds… or close to 53% slower.

So while I’m barely keeping myself from falling 9 feet to the bottom of the pool - Jason would already be back at the shallow end of the lap. Wow - that’s fast! (And yes - I’m slow… - But I will try and find some of my old times from many years ago and have some fun at my own expense.)

Congrats in any case to the US Olympic swimming teams! And yes - I listed Phelps (because of the picture) even though it’s more about Lezak’s time… Either case - they’re BOTH super fast!