My typical weeknight rides always take me past our local community pool. On Tuesday night(July 3rd) I had noticed that they had a lap lane setup on the side closest to the diving area. I thought “sweet” I can run down there tomorrow and do my normal Wed swim, since the Rodale Aquatic Center pool that I normally swim at was closed for the holiday. My coach had not scheduled a swim this day for the same reason, but I thought I would take the bull by the horns and do it anyway. Little did I know it would be such an ordeal.
When I arrived at the pool, the young, blonde girl at the front desk seemed stunned when I walked in. It was like she didn’t know what do. Doesn’t anyone come here or what? I asked her for a day pass and she nervously replied with “are you age 55 or older?” Exsqueeze-me??? I thought…really? Do I look 55 or older? Jeez! Ok either I look really old or she is just a complete ditz and is reading off some script behind the wall or something. Anyway, I replied “I hope not…no I am not.” In retrospect, maybe she was actually giving me the option of getting in free if I were to say “Yes, I am.” and she may have never questioned it. So Maybe I am the ditz now? I payed my $5 and proceeded into the pool area.
I located some empty grass near the lap lane and plopped down my stuff. I walked over to the lifeguard on duty and asked her if the lane was just lap swimming and she replied yes. Cool! There was another guy at the other end of the lane playing with his goggles, so I thought I would be sharing the lane with him. I jumped in and headed down the lane. I stopped at the other end and asked the guy if I could share the lane with him. He said “sure, no problem.” So I continued on with a warm-up set. I decided I would do a 3x300s and a 5x100s for my main sets and some kick sets and warm-up/cool downs thrown in for good measure. The other did about 50 yards and I never saw him again.
Everything was going pretty well and then it seemed that I was this freak who was actually SWIMMING and I started gathering the attention of children. Every breath I took I could see kids on the deck standing and staring at me and others clinging to the lane marker watching me. What you never saw someone swim before? Then kids starting coming into the lane…Hello?? Obviously I am trying to swim here so you are going to jump in front of me? This just kept getting worse. I thought the lifeguards would say something, but nothing. So no I am having to do some spotting as I swim and dodging kids. The kids would just look at me as I tried to give them a dirty look and take my breath at the same time. I guess it was not getting the point across.
To make things worse, these two older, mother-type ladies starting wallowing in the lane as well. Ok, I can see kids being oblivious, but these are two grown adults. It is so obvious I am trying to swim here and they still just plop right in the middle of the lane. I can’t believe how stupid people can be sometimes. I think I may have kicked the one lady as I went by the one time and they eventually moved out. I think that this may have been good training for the “washing-machine” start of Ironman Lake Placid when 2500 people trying to swim in a narrow lane at once, but I don’t think I will try this again. It is a shame that the pool cannot open in the early morning and allow lap swimming during the summer as it would save the trip and gas of driving across town, but I guess not.
Earlier that morning I had shoveled and wheel barrowed 3 yards of mulch into the flowerbeds. It didn’t take long for it to get hot out and I must have sweat 2 gallons doing it. I was determined to use the whole pile and I managed to do so. My back was rather sore later on that evening. Guess I need more core work. I also headed to the EPHS track to do some run pickups/intervals. It was still pretty hot out, but not as bad as earlier in the day. I did 5x50sec Zone4-5 with 2 min recoveries in between. I was just about toast by the last one. I was hoping to crack the 6:00/min pace on the last one, but my legs petered out on me.
Hope you had a happy 4th of July!
