Went to the Y last night to swim. Still feeling kind of stuffy, and I really, really didn’t want to go. Really wanted just to sit at the house and do taxes.
(OK, so that was a bald-faced lie)
But I didn’t want to swim.
Went anyway, jumped in a free lane (amazing how it’s packed when open swim opens up at 7:30PM, and is almost completely empty by 8:30, even though there’s another hour to go. I made it through about four laps, and almost ran into the wall, ’cause as I got to the end, I took a breath, twisted my head to sight the wall to gauge a turn, and there was a pair of legs there.
Flopped up, saw the rest of the woman they were attached to, blushed ’cause I might have been staring while trying to catch my breath and acknowledge we were going to be sharing the lane. She nodded, apologized, and let me get a quarter length on her before she started.
Pshew – talk about distracting. She was fast – big, smooth strokes, good kicks – everything I wasn’t. Great to swim with, ’cause she got me really pushing, trying to keep up.
Anyway, another lane opened after I’d done about 1000 yards, and she left. Made a deal with myself that I’d do another 500 and call it quits. Did the 10 laps, got ready to get out of the pool, and noticed the guy in the lane next to me was chatting up the lifeguard and the woman kind of killing time in the first lane. So, we talked for a while. The guy does at least 4 sets of 2500 yards each week, and has been for years. Looks great. This swimming stuff works.
The woman killing time reminded me a lot of myself – younger kids, trying to really get into shape for the first time in her life, but not really knowing how. I told her that jumping in was the best way to go, and pushed the bike (got the standard “But I’ve got a car, why would I want to ride a bike?” answer). But, she was enthusiastic, so she’ll probably be back.
All that yakkin’ got me inspired to do another 10 laps to round out the 2K for the day.
Wow! What a great swim!