Holy cats! Mother Nature sure woke up on the wrong side of the bed last week now didn’t she?

As I write this, Hurricane Sandy is pretty much past us, and the worst seems to be over. We didn’t get much of it where I am, but I know that the East Coast is really getting pounded right now. My thoughts are with all of you.

The past week has been a total Frankenstorm of activity for me too; I’ve been super busy at the gym with it being Release Week (Translation: The quarterly launch of new music and new choreography in all Les Mills International Programs around the world)!

Truth be told, I’ve totally over-trained my body this week and haven’t been treating it very well nutritionally either. I am so grateful that it keeps performing for me in spite of this. Times like this make me feel really guilty for hating on my body so much all the time.

In any case, if you’ve been following along with my Training Logs, you may notice that this week the only “triathlon” workout I have scheduled is for Friday, where I’ve planned to do my regular swim and a run. I made the executive decision that with it being Release Week, and the first week of new music at the gym, I needed to lay off the extra workouts and just get through to my next rest day (14 days from my last rest day…don’t judge me).

A really important part of this whole venture for me is finding a way for triathlon training to fit comfortably into my life. I’m sick of pitting new endurance challenges against my classes and watching them lose.

Every new physical challenge is going to lose to my classes. Every time. No exceptions.

So doesn’t it make more sense to find a way for the two to co-exist peacefully?

I thought so too.

Over the next year there will definitely be points where triathlon workouts just have to give way to classes for one reason or another. I think I just need to have confidence that an hour spent in the studio isn’t a “wasted” hour, and that everything I do in there still contributes to the ultimate goal.

I thought today because I don’t have an “official” post topic, I would share some of my (more amusing) experiences at my community pool!

I’ve started swimming on my lunch hours at work, it’s really the best time for me to do it because I don’t have to get up early, it gets me out of the office for a bit and it doesn’t impede my evening class schedule. Perfect!

The only problem is that the community pool right next to my office seems to be a bit “cliquey”.

And by “a bit” I mean “a lot”.

I thought the general rule of thumb was that as you get older; you get more respectful, more kind, more accepting….

So what the heck happened to these people that I swim with?!!?

My mom came with me for my very first lunch time swim because she had the day off work herself. Right away we noticed that the only people there other than us were about 15 older men, and one or two older women that all seemed to know each other very well. They even seemed to know the lifeguards very well!

I walked in (like a bit of an idiot) in my flowery Old Navy bathing suit and got started on my swim and we left pretty much without incident.

Well, if I’m being totally honest, this crabby, bitter old lifeguard said “Bye now! Thank you for coming!” to my mom on the way out and only gave me a disdainful look as I walked by. But that’s neither here nor there.

The second week was more interesting. I was flying solo, and the pool was jam packed. I was swimming into people right left and centre in the medium speed lane, touching old people in places that I should really never be touching them, and had people all over me too.

As Neil reminded me this weekend, that will be good practice for the Ironman!

Anyways, because I was all over people in the medium speed lane and the fast speed lane was basically empty except for 2 swimmers, I decided to hop on over and give it a whirl over there.

You would have thought that I had just bludgeoned someone to death in front of the lifeguard. After only 2 lengths, this nasty woman (the same one that didn’t acknowledge me the first week, hereafter referred to as “Nasty Lifegurd” or “NL” for short) blew her whistle (yes, blew her whistle) at me, and told me to get back in the medium lane.

So into the gong show I went again, and proceeded to touch old people inappropriately for the rest of my swim.

On the way out of the water, I stopped to grab my towel and dry off. As I was crouching down to put my goggles in my bag, I suddenly hear one of the men from the pool talking to NL, about me. He says “Thanks for policing the lanes. I hate when people do that.” You could have picked my jaw up off of the disgusting, scummy pool deck. NL then replied “Yes, some people just need to be told.”

What.The.Hell.

Okay pool-goers, somebody please chime in, did I totally break a cardinal rule here?? I only did 2 lengths in the fast lane, but I was never lapped by anybody there? I thought that things were fine and dandy?

ANYWAYS….

Fast Forward to Week 3. I forgot my towel and had to use toilet paper to dry myself off. It was not enjoyable.

I once again came out on deck to get in the water, and NL was standing at her usual post. I kid you not; the woman takes one look at me, throws her head back and makes a noise of exasperation that sounds something like,

“Tchkahhh.”

?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!!?!???!??!?!!

By this point, I’m more amused then anything…I’m almost looking forward to this Friday’s swim just to see what NL has up her sleeve!

So tell me…anybody who swims regularly…am I totally breaking pool etiquette by crashing this party?! What do you do if you are a little too quick for the medium speed lane, but not quite fast enough for the fast lane?!

Enjoy your Tuesday! We’re 2/5 of the way to the weekend again!

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