Back in the Pool

Yesterday I managed to do something I haven't done in close to 3-4 years. I jumped back in the pool for a swim workout.

Let me veer off topic a bit to give you a brief "The Meat History Lesson of the Day." When I finished my college baseball playing days at New Mexico State I ventured into the sport called triathlon. I used to swim (at least what I call swimming) to keep my arm in shape throughout the long grueling season. In my many swim visits to the New Mexico State Univ. pool I met an interesting bunch. These guys would do these outrageous swim workouts that wore me out just looking at them. I later learned they were triathletes. What the hell is that right? It's a sport consisting of three disciplines (Swim, Bike, Run). Long story short, these guys got me into triathlon. Before long I was doing the workouts with them. The only ingredient I was missing was the bike. I had no idea what a tri bike was or what it looked liked. My friend Tomas, gave me all the details and not to long I had a tri bike, thanks to my Dad. I don't think he was to excited busting out $1500 for a bike. I don't think he was into the idea about me going into this sport. He still gave me his full support though. Anyways the bike was a trusty Kona. I still have that bike today. To cut to the chase, I became pretty good at triathlons. Before long I was finishing just 1 or 2 minutes down in the results from the overall leaders. I got hooked. In fact so hooked I signed up for Iron Man California after I graduated in May of 2001. You'd think a guy would wait to do an Iron Man a couple years after just starting triathlons. No not me, I jumped right into it after a few months of my triathlon venture. It's a big deal because an IronMan consists of a 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a full marathon 26.2 miles. All in the same day, May 19th, 2001. I'm still very proud of that accomplishment.

After I moved to DC in June of 2001 I continued to do triathlons for up until 2002. Then I met these guys who call themselves roadies. Roadies are cyclist who just do cycling and compete. You mention triathlons to them and they may just slap you across the face. AND that's how I got hooked on cycling. Triathlons became a thing of the past. In fact I keep it a secret that I still run for conditioning purposes. You mention running to cyclists and its off with your head :)

So that brings me back to the beginning of my story. Being back in the pool brought back good memories. I did a 30 min interval workout (about 1500 meters) and it wasn't to bad. In fact I may sign up for the Osprey Triathlon in Public Landing, MD October 4th. Oh boy, an ocean swim in October. Holy Crap, I hope the hurricanes don't bring the big waves. Shhhh, don't tell my cycling buddies.