There is a "no whining about event order" pledge,but this is more general so I thought I'd start a new thread.
I was thinking about the whining I had here to for done at meets and decided enough was enough.
I resolve not to whine about not being ready for the meet(inadequate training,inadequate taper,inadequate sleep,etc.)
I resolve to not whine about feeling sick,hurt,sore etc.
I resolve that no matter what I think about my swim,if someone says "good swim" I will graciously thank them.
This will probably make meets a better experience for all around me.
Does anyone else feel a need to make a pledge?
When I swam with Pitt masters at the U Pittsburgh pool, there was a morning group (up at 5 a.m.) and an evening group (practice starts at 5:30 p.m.)
As an unconscious whiner who emitted little whimpers involuntarily, the way a person with halitosis exhales puffs of putrescent breath that he has gotten so used to that its smell seems like normal air, I was informed one day by Pitt's excellent masters coach Jen that I didn't need to be this way.
There was, Jen told me, a legendary non-whiner who swam in the 5 a.m. practices, a fellow named Rich Durstein who never complained about anything. The man could have a spike through his head and he would not have mentioned it, nor the impact said spike would have on his ability to hold a tight interval.
Perhaps, Jen suggested, I could try to be a little bit more like Rich Durstein.
I am nothing if not suggestible!
And from that day on, I determined to Durstein my way through the vicissitudes of life, shouldering no shortage of woe and handicap without so much as a micro twitch of my mouth corners!
This was approximately five years ago.
I have yet to meet Rich Durstein; indeed, I have come to wonder if he even exists.
They say that if God did not exist, then Man would have had to invent him.
Perhaps it is like this with Rich Durstein.
I don't know.
But I do know this: after five years of Dursteining my own way through life's teary veil, the thought of ever uttering a whine or complaint has become inconceivable to me. I am, in my own way, a model of Dursteining swimming.
Take your pledge? No need, my good man!
This would indicate I am capable of backsliding, of paying attention to my corporal state, my fevers and colics and headaches and cramps, and commenting about same either through soliloquy or groan!
But I am incapable of doing either!
Sometimes I believe that when Man felt the need to invent Rich Durstein, Man inadvertently invented me!
If you would like help following my path, I will do my best to help. My disciple Leslie is making progress. I shall not comment on the nature of this progress. It is not the Durstein way.
When I swam with Pitt masters at the U Pittsburgh pool, there was a morning group (up at 5 a.m.) and an evening group (practice starts at 5:30 p.m.)
As an unconscious whiner who emitted little whimpers involuntarily, the way a person with halitosis exhales puffs of putrescent breath that he has gotten so used to that its smell seems like normal air, I was informed one day by Pitt's excellent masters coach Jen that I didn't need to be this way.
There was, Jen told me, a legendary non-whiner who swam in the 5 a.m. practices, a fellow named Rich Durstein who never complained about anything. The man could have a spike through his head and he would not have mentioned it, nor the impact said spike would have on his ability to hold a tight interval.
Perhaps, Jen suggested, I could try to be a little bit more like Rich Durstein.
I am nothing if not suggestible!
And from that day on, I determined to Durstein my way through the vicissitudes of life, shouldering no shortage of woe and handicap without so much as a micro twitch of my mouth corners!
This was approximately five years ago.
I have yet to meet Rich Durstein; indeed, I have come to wonder if he even exists.
They say that if God did not exist, then Man would have had to invent him.
Perhaps it is like this with Rich Durstein.
I don't know.
But I do know this: after five years of Dursteining my own way through life's teary veil, the thought of ever uttering a whine or complaint has become inconceivable to me. I am, in my own way, a model of Dursteining swimming.
Take your pledge? No need, my good man!
This would indicate I am capable of backsliding, of paying attention to my corporal state, my fevers and colics and headaches and cramps, and commenting about same either through soliloquy or groan!
But I am incapable of doing either!
Sometimes I believe that when Man felt the need to invent Rich Durstein, Man inadvertently invented me!
If you would like help following my path, I will do my best to help. My disciple Leslie is making progress. I shall not comment on the nature of this progress. It is not the Durstein way.
