Intervals and a Crowded, Hairy Swim

Yesterday morning, I woke up early. I had debated to just lay in my bed and think about my day... tasks that needed to be done, what my schedule was for the week, but instead, I opted to pay Milles a visit. I have to confess that Milles has been neglected. With the gorgeous Spring weather, I specifically choose NOT to run inside. But at 4:45am my husband had already left for work, I had to use Milles if I wanted to run.

And so, I talked to him as I was putting my shoes on. Asked him to be nice to me, that I could not afford another fall. And I told him about what I had planned to do. So without delaying it any further (I put a load of laundry in the washer since Milles resides near the laundry room), I hopped on. I had decided to run 5 miles. First and Last mile at a 9 min pace, and the middle 3 at interval pace. I had originally thought I would do 2 mins at 8:30 pace and 1 min at 7:30 pace... but as I started the first 7:30 interval, when the min was over, I still felt good. So I decided to go for anther minute. In the end, my workout was like this:

Mile 1: 9 min pace
Miles 2-4: 2 min/7:30 min pace, 2 min/8:30 pace
Mile 5: 9 min pace

Total run time: 42:15

I was sweaty and it was still before 6am. Yay!

After I got the kids off to school I had to go into work. Now, I do not LOVE Monday mornings. In fact, I specifically work from home on Mondays because I feel like I drag all day. I went into the office and I am pretty sure my boss will not be asking me to work on Mondays anymore. I quickly finished what needed to be finished and headed to the pool.

My gym membership (the one with the pool) expired, so I was going to the city pool. Apparently the lunch hour is CRAZY busy. I bought my 25 visit pass and realized that this isn't like the gym, you HAD to bring your own towel. Oh, well, I would have to dry under the blowers like the "old" ladies do.

Now at the city pool, there are two indoor pools. One is in meters and the other is in yards. Apparently, people are too lazy to do math, because the meter pool was RIDICULOUSLY busy. As I walked in, it was like ALL eyes on me. I felt like I was in high school again (and very thankful that I had opted for the full piece today). The yard pool had about 4 people. My decision was obviously, do quick math in my head and hop into the pool and knock out a mile.

Very similar, but younger.

As I was getting into the pool, this really HAIRY man and this old man entered the pool. The Hairy man was beyond hairy... I mean, the only place I did not see hair was on his palms and the bottom of his feet. NO JOKE! He asked if he could share my lane (And inside I was thinking... really, there are 2 free lanes over there), and I said yes. Hairy dove in and the old man, I mean like in his late 70s who was wearing either a really old speedo or one that was way too big came over to me as I was stretching.

Mind you, I am in the water stretching my arms, Old Dude (OD) with a very loose speedo comes over to me, squats down (birds eye view if you know what I mean), and says, "You can't share a lane with him, you will drown with a hair ball in your mouth."

Honestly, I couldn't laugh because of the view he was giving me was making me sick to my stomach. Seriously, cruel things happen to your body as you get old.... apparently. I turned to watch Hairy as he was coming back and said, "Well, promise me if you see me choking, you will rescue me!"

OD said, "Sure thing, sweety. Now you be careful, I'm swimming over there!" As he was pointing to the lane designated for "slow" swimmers. And off he slowly walked. I have to give him credit for even being there though. I hope I am still active when I am that old, but someone, please remind me to wear suits that cover all of my parts.

I started to swim my laps, and Hairy was slow.... very slow. I am not sure if it was his hair that was slowing him down, or if he was going to be swimming for hours. I managed to knock out 1800 yards in 35 minutes and didn't even realize that Hairy had left at some point and OD had joined my lane.

As I got out, OD started talking to me. At first I thought he had mistaken me for someone else. But as it turned out, he was a triathlete "in the good 'ole days" and was really 95 years old. WOW! I was impressed. He offered me some advice about competing and said, "Good day!"

It was interesting to swim at the city pool. And I have 24 more passes to use, so I will definitely be back. As to dealing with a lack of towel... the sauna did the job!