One of Those Days

Have you ever have one of those days where everything you have planned just doesn't seem meant to be? Today was that day for me. I intended to do a mid-morning long(ish) run, but had some things to take care of that pushed me to a later start. Then I got sidetracked looking for my flight to Madison to visit family, volunteer at Ironman Wisconsin and sign up for the 2009 race. This took awhile since I had a number of scenarios to explore, but it was worth the time. I found a frequent flyer ticket on an airline I never fly anymore and had just enough miles to cover it. I'll be in Madison for 9 days and it's only costing me $7.50. You can't beat that.

I kicked around the idea of doing a short ride instead of running, but as the day moved on, it got hotter and hotter and my motivation waned. I decided to redeem the running and biking tomorrow and just settle for an evening swim. I was more tired than usual so a semi-rest day felt like the right thing to do.

Since I was sitting at a computer all day, I decided to walk to the pool rather than bike. I enjoyed the walk and got to the pool fairly quickly. I showed my ID to the security guy and headed upstairs to the pool. Within minutes I had my cap and goggles on and was ready to get started. And then I noticed it was missing. Again. My ID was nowhere to be found. The last time I lost it I didn't notice for days, but this was ridiculous, I had just used it to get into the building! I ditched the cap and goggles, threw on shorts and walked back the way I came to see if I could find it. This involved two sets of stairs, an elevator and a long trip across the building. It was nowhere to be found. So I headed back to the locker room incredibly frustrated. I had wasted 20 minutes at this point. I turned my bag inside out one more time and finally found it.

The pool was a little more crowded tonight so there were only two lanes left to be shared. There was a guy who was a good swimmer and a girl floating and backstroking. Just as I was thinking the guy was the right choice, he started doing the butterfly so I had to go with the backstroker. I waited for her to reach the wall before getting in and sure enough, it was the woman that swam right over me a couple times last month and then freaked out because I touched her. Just my luck. She was meandering again so it was hard to get into a rhythm. Luckily butterfly man left after 10 minutes or so and I was able to take over his lane. I had a great swim albeit a short one. I was still a little tired, but was able to swim a bit faster than yesterday with the same amount of effort.

I decided to walk along the new Hudson River Park on the way home to enjoy the nice evening. The sun was just starting to set and it was beautiful. I was strolling along enjoying the view, not really looking where I was going, but happened to sight a rather large dog pile up ahead. Apparently Fido's owner forgot to bring a plastic bag along. Unfortunately, the guy headed my way didn't happen to notice and shuffled right through it, smearing it everywhere. Suddenly I realized my day wasn't so bad after all.

Swimming
Distance - 1350 yards (.76 miles)
Time - 26:03