March 21, 2009

Freak Show

You see some odd things when you spend as much time at the gym as I do and today was no exception. I did a strength session followed by a long swim. The strength was filled with the usual amount of bizarre workout behavior and the swim had a few as well. I was in the pool for over an hour so I saw a lot of folks come and go. The strangest of the bunch were these two guys that joined mid-swim. We exchanged some casual banter about how cold the pool was (it was brisk), then I started a set of 500. One of the guys was in my lane. He swam about 100, during which he stopped in the middle and had a conversation, and then got out. When turning to breathe, I noticed they were both leaving. What's the point of getting in your swim gear and getting chlorinated to swim 100 yards? I just don't get it. There was another guy doing a long workout that was written in Sharpie on a full sheet of paper and attached to a kickboard standing upright like a tombstone. I sure hope he had poor vision and didn't wear corrective goggles, otherwise that's just overkill. I manage to follow my workout on a regular sized notecard.

After the swim I hit the steam room only to find out there was very little steam. There was a woman in there who filled me in on how she thought it was broken and went through all her techniques for trying to trick the steam into turning on. I toughed it out about 5 minutes and decided to go take a hot shower instead. While getting dressed I realized her locker was right near mine. As I was drying my hair, I caught a glimpse of her in the mirror doing something with her foot. She was cutting her toenails. And not just cutting them like normal, but she had a pair of manicure scissors and was trimming and picking at all sorts of parts of her feet. This ritual went on for at least 15 minutes before she moved onto her hands. What is up with that? Why would you chill at the gym in your towel clipping your toenails and fingernails? Not only is it disgusting, but it's a massive waste of time. Very bizarre indeed.

The swim went well today. It was long, 3,100 yards total with the warm up and cool down. The first 300 was nice and easy, then I did 500 x 5 at my half Ironman goal pace, or at least I tried. I hit it on two and came pretty close on two, the other was about 25 seconds too slow. Even though I was slightly off the mark, I was still faster than I've been before and that's a big accomplishment for me. I also have to consider that I did 50 minutes of strength training prior to this swim and it was 6pm so I was a bit tired. I'm planning to do a continuous 1.2 mile swim soon just to remind myself I can do it. I think after that I'll be all set.

I dropped my bike off today and it will be on it's way to New Orleans Monday. There's no turning back now.

Swimming
Distance - 3,100 yards
Time - 56:01

1 comment:

  1. I bet those two guys just wanted to get in the lane with the hawt chick and got discouraged when they realized you were there for a serious workout (and they couldn't keep up with you). You've been working hard. NO is going to be great.

    ReplyDelete

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