Sunset Swim

I finally swam in the Red Hook Municipal pool. It was after work and I was exhausted, but still I went. The evening air was cool and I felt chilled as I walked to the lap swimmer lanes. I shuddered a bit when I entered the water and quickly got on with the business of my workout. It was the only way I was going to generate enough body heat to stay warm.

My workout called for lots of drills, which I wound up doing with a guy I met at the pool who I think said he was on the French National Triathlon team. We started speaking while we were waiting for the lap swim session to begin and he asked me what type of workout I was going to do. I replied that I had a plan that my coach gave me and he said he would do it with me, since he gets bored while swimming and wanted something to focus on as well.

I was a bit leery of him at first, since I thought he may be some sort of weirdo. He turned out to be a good guy and excellent swimmer. He was watching how I did some of my drills and swimming technique and offered advice which was exactly what I heard from my coach. According to him he also coached swimming a Chelsea Piers. He pointed out several flaws in my technique, all of which I heard before. I guess I am a stubborn learning, because I would have hoped by now my form would have been better. It’s not terrible, but I probably waste a lot of energy when swimming.

After a while he had to leave and I got onto the rest of my workout. It was getting past 8pm by now and I was the only person in the pool. It felt kind of strange having such a gigantic pool all to me while several lifeguards were forced to sit around and wait for me to finish. I decided I wasn’t getting out of the water until my time was up and they kicked me out of the water. The evening sky started to turn a brilliant red from the remaining clouds from the day’s earlier rain. The water felt cool and refreshing and I enjoyed my remaining time in the pool.

When I finished, I was very happy I went swimming. It was a good workout and a great way to end the day. I wasn’t happy though with how late it had become, because my kids would be in bed by the time I got home. Upon my arrival I rushed to their bedrooms to say goodnight. I lay in bed with my son for a while who I tried to console when he told me a book he created in school got ruined from rain that crept in from an open window. After I got him to go back to sleep, I had my daughter come back downstairs with me so we could talk while I ate dinner; much to my wife’s annoyance. I didn’t really care, since I wanted to talk to my girl and hear about her first day at camp.

After that, it was off to bed for me in an attempt to get enough sleep to get this morning’s run workout in. I am usually trashed in the morning after an evening workout and this was how I felt today. I was literally staggering when I got out of bed. I heard rain outside my window and that convinced me I was better off getting some extra sleep. It looks like it will have to be another evening workout tonight.