This morning was pretty tough...
Practice was killer. First off the pool is really cold. More than anything, I hate cold water. Cold water kills morale without a doubt. We warmed up for about thirty minutes, then jumped into a set of 10, 300's best average on 3:45. This means we did 10, 300's going as fast as we could possibly hold. The interval was 3:45. I was dog tired. My arms literally felt like they were tightening up more and more with every stroke. I mainly was trying to stay long in my stroke and keep my head looking at the bottom of the pool. I think it is always necessary to be thinking about our strokes, especially in hard sets like this. Many times we fall into poor technique when the work gets tough. When we begin to fall apart and get fatigued this is the most important time to keep our technique as close to perfect as we can. Our mind and muscle memory learns to hold this correct technique for our races when we practice it on sets like this.
Although this was a really tough set I left practice feeling energized and ready to go. There is something about working hard in the morning that just starts the day off perfectly. I ran some errands and headed home.
Before I got home I stopped at a gas-station to fill up. For some reason I felt enticed to go buy a lottery ticket...this is very out of my nature...in fact I think this is my first time to ever buy a lottery ticket. I asked for the ticket that was five dollars and gave me the opportunity to win a custom chopper motorcycle. I would love a motorcycle! I understand a motorcycle is not really in the cards right now due to my status as a professional athlete...However, I still want one haha:)
I pulled my credit card out to pay for the milk and lottery ticket. The man behind the counter told me that Texas State Law prevents you from paying for a lottery ticket with a credit card. I asked him why? He said, "it's probably to keep people from over-extending themselves..." Wow, I think that is a great idea! He added, "If so many people didn't over-extend themselves we probably wouldn't be in such a financial crisis right now." I had to agree with the man. What do you think?
I won the five dollars back!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tough Morning
Posted by Garrett at 11:02 AM
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11 comments:
That's a good law, I think, not being able to pay for lottery tickets with a credit card so you don't get overextended. Neat that you got the money back that you paid! I knew of a Christian bookstore that wouldn't take credit cards for the same reason. For example, can you imagine the irony of charging a book on debt management? ;=)
I had every intent to swim yesterday, and do deep water aerobics today at lunch but I just can't make myself do it when it's cold. The walk from the aquatic center to the UT tower is just awful with wet hair when it's cold. Funny though I had no problem swimming everyday when I lived in the UK and it was cold all the time.
Mad props to you for staying motivated even when it's cold out.
Lottery tickets are one of my secret vices. I've always assumed that the reason they took cash only was due to less chances for fraud, not having to factor credit card processing fees into the calculations, and so that no-one changes their mind and does a chargeback later.
I think the his over-extending hypothesis is extremely wishful thinking. In actuality the cash only thing is to make SURE they get our $$.
My butt was handed to me by Hannah Montana and a ladder. Up and down all day marking her stuff down in my store. Who knew you could slap your name and face on so much stuff and kids go nuts for it. I'm talking a neon guitar clock for 29.99 what kid needs that? Talk about overextending.
Lottery tickets hate me... as soon as I turned 18, I bought one. It was either that, or go smoke, and since I have absolutely no desire to destroy my body, I went for the lottery ticket. Didn't win anything... I would buy them here or there and not win a thing. My brother was completely against lottery tickets, but I talked him into getting one. His first one he won 45 dollars, so he cashed in, and bought another ticket. This time, he won 50 dollars... he did it again and won 100 dollars. I was like, dude, no fair... lol.
As for the financial crisis - I think a lot is to blame for that, but at the front of the charge would be people spending money they don't have, and banks giving out loans to people they know would never be able to pay them back.
and will we stop? No - probably not, because we have people promising us MORE money... where's it gonna come from? We don't know... but... it's coming!!! And we should all revel in it! Spend, spend, spend!! They'll print off more and more money! Eventually, down the road, there will be mass inflation, and we'll be back to the good ole days where a wheelbarrow full of money could pay for a loaf of bread, but that's not going to happen in OUR generation, that's for the little ones!
I say - be extra nice to the kiddies this holiday season - they have NO IDEA the future that's in store for them.
What's that? Bitter? About the financial crisis?? Why on earth would you think I was bitter about the financial crisis??? ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGWsoRNmgfM
Congrats on winning five dollars. Something is better than nothing. :o)
I was happy I got the five dollars back...the question now is whether I should go back and buy another five dollar ticket to win the motorcycle??? probably not!
Don't go to the UT pool right now...it is absolutely freezing:(
You might be right about them wanting cash to make sure they get their money...either way I think it is a good idea so people don't overextend themselves.
Good idea getting the lottery ticket over the cigarettes!
I think it's a great idea myself..there's so much financial crisis right now it's not even funny...so I think it's a great way to help decrease it. Glad you won 5 dollars.
I can see it now, Garrett Weber-Gale wins motorcycle from a five dollar lottery ticket. You know you'd look all pimped out on a motorcycle. It'd be sweet. I wanna chopper.
I hear ya about the UT pool, the MU pool is the same way right now. Glad you had an over all good practice although it was tough.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr....cold water swimming certainly isn't my thing, though there's certainly afficianados out there! My mornign pool at the gym is sometimes as "low" as 22 celsius, and that's low enough for me. Wussy wimp. Fortunatley living in Sydney, piled-up snow cold is a foreign concept ;_0
@Sally,
Cold water swimming is the best! I love swimming in Barton Springs where the water temp is about 68. It's cold weather when you're wet that sucks! Give me a 68 degree pool and 90 degree weather over a 80 degree pool and 60 degree weather anytime!
I love going to Barton Springs too but I really don't like training in cold water...plus the air at the pool is not particularly warm either...that makes it worse:(
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