30 Minute Swim & 60 Minute Bike

Ooooh, wood grain laminte lockers...so luxurious.

I haven't been swimming much in the last few weeks, not because I didn't want to (who am I kidding, I've been slacking), but because my health club was renovating and the pool was unavailable.  It's opened back up now and I went in for an early morning (or late night, depending on what time you get up) swim.

I got to the newly renovated club a few minutes before 5am and noticed that everything seemed to have a fresh coat of paint and a few new pictures on the wall, it looks better than it did, but nothing too special.  They re-did the locker room with some wood-grain laminte lockers and refinished the pool deck.  Overall, a nice little renovation.

I hopped in the pool and started doing a little 500 yard ladder warm up.  Almost instantly I noticed that in the renovation process they also must have renovated the chemicals in the pool because the chlorine content was so high it practically made me choke.  Ugh. 

When they renovated the pool deck they either had some chemicals seep into the water or they jumped up the chlorine right after the renovation to make sure the water was clean.  Whatever the reason, it made breathing a bit challenging.  It was kind of like breathing really humid air that burned your lungs a bit.  Wonderful.

At any rate, I got through the workout and did about 1500 yards.  Man, it was hard swimming after not having been in the pool for a while.  I'm sure I'll get my groove back, but today felt like a struggle on every level. 

It was very manatee like, but with less grace.

I finished in the pool, hopped in my car and drove home.  I quickly changed into my cycling clothes and hit the biking trail right as the sun was coming up.  It was pretty cloudy, so I didn't get the full effect of the sunrise ride (which I normally really like) but it was still nice.  A little breeze but probably 60%-70% humidity so i was sweating like crazy.  Otherwise, the ride was pretty uneventful other than I felt pretty slow today.

I got home right at 7am and got to have breakfast with my girls.  Overall, not a bad workout for a Saturday morning.

17 Minute Swim

17 Min Swim
700 yds
41.17 yds/min

I know you're asking yourself, "Geek, why is there a picture of Harvey Firestein, star of stage and screen, at the top of a post about swimming?"  Oh, gentle reader, we'll get there, just keep reading...

It's a recovery week for my Tri training (as well as P90X) which means shorter training sessions.  I went to the gym today after work for a short swim (17 min), followed by a short bike ride (35 min).  The swim was pretty good, I did 700 yards and really focused on my stroke technique.  The swim is all about technique and efficiency.  I NEED to get more efficient in the water.  I am horribly slow and inefficient right now.  My stroke count per length is 20-21, I think it should be more like 13-15.  I decided that I need to have a swim coach dissect my stroke and help me with some drills. There's a trainer at my gym that does lots of triathlons that I think I'm going to hire to break down my stroke and help me get better.  More on that in a later post, I'm sure.

The real story comes after the swim, which brings us to Harvey up there.  So I finish my swim and head into the locker room to change into some shorts and a shirt so I can hop on a stationary bike.  While I'm doing the combination to my locker a guy comes out of the shower, a guy who looks and sounds stunningly similar to Harvey Firestein, but with bigger earrings in both ears - oh and buck naked - and asks me (no kidding) "Do you wax your back? I waxed mine once and it hurt like hell.  I also shaved 'down there' once but since I'm not 'cut' after words it felt like a razor blade between my thighs." 

Wha?  Did he really just ask me that and tell me that?  And WTF, I've been aquainted with him for about 10 seconds and now I have both verbal and visual confirmation that he was never circumsized.  This is entirely too much information for a casual locker room conversation.  Harvey continued to talk and give me the once over - yeah, I'm pretty sure he was checking me out - in the locker room - naked - and I'll admit it...it was weird.  

I was friendly and chatted with him about something for a minute or two, trying to get my clothes on and get out the door.  Then he says, "Do you dive? 'Cause once I went to a lake and jumped off of a platform that flopped my belly pretty good and it hurt.  My wife told me that was a pretty stupid thing to do.  I suppose we all do stuipid things when we're young."

Oh, I see what you did there, Harvey.  Nice attempt at trying to manuver your way back into the closet with that wife comment, but I'm afraid that's not going to work.  Having a 2 minute naked conversation with a guy you just met which include the topics 1) waxing your back, 2) your nether regions, and 3) your abundance of foreskin,  all while you are taking uncomfortably long looks at my abs...I don't think your half-hearted comment about your fake wife is going to convince anyone of anything. 

Harvey, perhaps next time we should ease into naked conversations with strangers.