Monday, August 11, 2008

Training Hurdles....

Since it's taper week and my training at this point is quite minimal and boring, I thought I'd talk about something we all deal with. Hurdles. Those hoops we jump through to make things work.
My biggest hurdle is pool time. Time in general is a big thing for me but I've figured out a way to make that work.
Pool time is a different story. I'll try not to get too fired up here. I live in an area without a local pool. I almost makes me cringe just to write that. I've been a swimmer since I was 8. I was lucky enough to grow up in an area with a beautiful town pool.
Now, the closest pool is 35 minutes away. It drives me nuts.
For the past few years, I have driven there for their 6 am swim. I leave home at 5:03, arrive there a 5:40, and hop in the water at 5:50. You see, the man who has lifeguarded the "early bird swim" for the past 14 years is nice enough to let us in 10 minutes early. I swim until 6:22, jump out, dress while still wet and drive like a maniac to get home so my husband can get to work at 7:00. Lucky for me he works ~1 mile from home and can leave here at 6:58!! Phew. That's a whopping 2000 yds most days! A whole 4000 yards/week! Yeah. Way to get fit! Sorry for the sarcasm. It just bugs me.
Things are even more annoying right now though. Our devoted lifeguard is out for 5 weeks. His sub does not see things as he does. She opens the locker rooms for us at 5:58. Arrrgh!!! What a waste of time! It's driving me nuts.
I tried to very calmly and politely explain to her today how much every minute counts and if she'd be willing to open at even 5:55 it would help. I offered to swim the lane lines down the pool to help her. She was ok about it...seemed to understand...sort of.
Somehow I need to convince this town of ours that the area needs a town pool. And then I need to raise the mega bucks to build it!!! Any ideas??
We all have hurdles we deal with to train for this sport. That's mine.

3 comments:

Jennifer Cunnane said...

NO idea on how to pay... maybe you and the kids could jump in the biggest bathtub in your house with goggles on??? :-) Your split times would be great!

Anonymous said...

I can relate to this! I had to drive 30 minutes (one way) for 2 years because our town shut down our pool. It's been a big old mess ever since!!! We now have a new pool and you'd think it would have made things easier...NOT!

Keep hounding the pool people to open up a few minutes early!! Maybe she should follow you around some morning and she'd see what a difference 5 minutes would make!

Swimming for ME said...

bring her chocolate! Lots of it. :D

And you know what, I consider swimming 2000 yards by myself a LONG workout. Some things never change. Just make every yard count. And considering what an awesome swimmer you are, those 2000 yard workouts don't seem to keeping you back.

Good luck on Sunday!!