I've been going to the line in various athletic competitions since I was 14 years old. I joined my high school swim team and began my infatuation with suffering. Honestly, I do not think there is any high school sport that even comes close to swimming in terms of training volume, intensity and general discomfort. The rising popularity of rowing in high school athletic programs might rival swimming nowadays but crew was not an option when I was a kid. Oh sure, football players love to think they're such bad asses doing two-a-days in the August heat. But let's face it, they're standing around doing nothing half the time and their actual efforts last about 10 seconds. Compare that to swimmers doing between 8,000 and 14,000 yards a day in the typical program. Hell, back then, before we knew better, we did hard intervals everyday and did so without drinking a drop of liquid or downing a single calorie for the typical 2.5 to 3 hour workout. God, we were a bunch of over-trained knuckleheads!