Forcing the Swim
Earlier this week, I was giving myself grief about not getting up to do a swim workout, when one was not even scheduled. Not doing that unscheduled swim was looking to linger over my head yesterday, when I was unable to rouse myself from bed to head to the pool. If only I went to the pool on Monday, I wouldn’t be faced with the prospect of blowing off no less than 50 percent of my scheduled swim workouts.
Taking a chance that I would somehow still get it in, I took the barest of swim gear essentials with me to work. I was heading to Huntington, LI for the day and figured that maybe I would head to the Aquatics Center at Eisenhower Park on my way home for a swim. It turned out that a coworker in my LI office was also swimming after work and invited me to join her at her pool. It was further away from my home, but the cost for going was free.
The ride to the pool was supposedly only a few minutes away, but the ride took us at least 20 minutes along small roads that I was completely unfamiliar. I began to think this was a major mistake and envisioned getting home around midnight.
Once I got to the pool, things started to look better. The pool was crowded by my friend’s standards, but to mine, it was blessedly empty. My friend complained that it appeared she wouldn’t be able to get a 25 yard lane all to herself. If that is crowded, then she hasn’t swum at Asphalt Green during the same time when only 4 of 16 lanes are available for adult lap swimming. I shared a lane with a benign fellow and concentrated on doing my drills and various freestyle intervals. The water was a balmy 82 degrees which suited me just fine. I finished 2000 yards of swimming before 7pm and stood a good chance of making it home before 8pm.
Unfortunately, no towel service was available so I had to shake myself dry like a shaggy dog walking in from the rain. I tried hanging out in the sauna for a while, but it wasn’t hot enough to do more than eliminate the chill I developed walking into the locker room. Finally, I grabbed a bunch of paper towels from the wall and patted myself dry as best I could. I wished I brought along a change of clothes instead of having to get back into my work suit.
The pool was on a large campus (I am keeping the name a secret so it doesn’t get crowded for when I go back), and I struggled to remember where I parked my car. It was quite dark outside and my wet hair was causing me quite the chill. I managed to find it in due time and started the drive home. I even made it home on time to tuck my kids in bed.
Taking a chance that I would somehow still get it in, I took the barest of swim gear essentials with me to work. I was heading to Huntington, LI for the day and figured that maybe I would head to the Aquatics Center at Eisenhower Park on my way home for a swim. It turned out that a coworker in my LI office was also swimming after work and invited me to join her at her pool. It was further away from my home, but the cost for going was free.
The ride to the pool was supposedly only a few minutes away, but the ride took us at least 20 minutes along small roads that I was completely unfamiliar. I began to think this was a major mistake and envisioned getting home around midnight.
Once I got to the pool, things started to look better. The pool was crowded by my friend’s standards, but to mine, it was blessedly empty. My friend complained that it appeared she wouldn’t be able to get a 25 yard lane all to herself. If that is crowded, then she hasn’t swum at Asphalt Green during the same time when only 4 of 16 lanes are available for adult lap swimming. I shared a lane with a benign fellow and concentrated on doing my drills and various freestyle intervals. The water was a balmy 82 degrees which suited me just fine. I finished 2000 yards of swimming before 7pm and stood a good chance of making it home before 8pm.
Unfortunately, no towel service was available so I had to shake myself dry like a shaggy dog walking in from the rain. I tried hanging out in the sauna for a while, but it wasn’t hot enough to do more than eliminate the chill I developed walking into the locker room. Finally, I grabbed a bunch of paper towels from the wall and patted myself dry as best I could. I wished I brought along a change of clothes instead of having to get back into my work suit.
The pool was on a large campus (I am keeping the name a secret so it doesn’t get crowded for when I go back), and I struggled to remember where I parked my car. It was quite dark outside and my wet hair was causing me quite the chill. I managed to find it in due time and started the drive home. I even made it home on time to tuck my kids in bed.
posted by Rebel at 9:13 PM
1 Comments:
As you know, the swim is the least important of the three events in any triathlon, With that in mind I believe you should swim once a month, at most. Bike a lot and run even more (14 times a week is not enough). That'll get you very far and you won't waste all that time in the silly pool with people that are faster than you.
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