I worked fairly late last night getting things ready for a demo I have today. I didn’t get home till 10:30, so it was after midnight by the time I was settled down enough to sleep. But I still got up this morning and swam a little. Once again, the pool was quite crowded. No military people this morning, just a bunch of old people and slow swimmers. I’m going to have to find a better time to swim, because morning isn’t it. The old people are nice enough, but they cake themselves with perfume (before coming to the pool?) which then gets into the water and makes everything taste bad.

500 Free warm-up
5 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in at 1:20)
5 x 50 Kick
200 Free warm-down
———-
1450 yards

It’s been a while since I’ve driven in early enough to swim before work. I didn’t sleep very well last night, due to some big things that were going to happen at work this morning. Those things did happen and we’re about to have a meeting about it, but I doubt very seriously if I am allowed to write about it. But I found myself staring at the wall for over an hour this morning, so I decided to drive in and swim.

When I began walking around the pool enclosure, the water seemed very calm. I started thinking that I would have the pool to myself, but then I saw a few ripples coming from the slow lane. No big deal. Someone is going slow in the slow lane. That’s fine. But then I got to the end of the pool near the locker room and saw something I haven’t ever seen at Gold’s Gym. Four or five men in regular swim suits (non-speedo) were standing at the end of each lane of the pool. There was a coach (or similar) in street clothes giving them instruction.

My only hope was that they were almost finished and I would soon be able to swim. I was wrong. They did consolidate down to just two lanes, but only because there were several old “walkers” (as opposed to swimmers) that had gotten in the pool. So I got to share the slow lane with the walkers. It wasn’t enjoyable, so I got out quickly and came to work.

200 Free warm-up
2 x 50 Free @ 1:30
100 Kick
100 Free warm-down
———-
500 yards

There was a big group at the gym today. Joey was setting Kyle up with the girl that has started working out with Joey’s wife. Scott led Joey and Kyle in a back workout. Joe did a shoulder workout. And I swam. If I had known that nobody was going to be working out with Joe, I would have skipped the swimming and worked out with him. But by the time I saw the hose pouring nice cold water into the pool, that was all I could think about. It’s not often that the pool is as cool as I would like it, so I try to take advantage of it when I can.

500 Free warm-up
8 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in at 1:15)
200 Free easy
8 x 50 Kick @ 1:20 (coming in at 0:55)
200 Free warm-down
———-
2100 yards

I went back to the pool on my way home from work last night.  Unlike the day before, the place was empty, which was fine with me.  I was just getting into the meat of the workout when a rather large woman came out and started arranging flotation devices around the side of the pool.  It didn’t take me long to realize she was the leader of the water buffalo that would soon appear.  Seeing them wade into the pool made it more than obvious why the place was deserted.  And I’m not just talking about the pool, either.  On Wednesday, the entire parking lot was full of cars and the whole gym was humming with people.  Having the water buffalo tromping around in their polyester tarpaulins is enough to scare everyone away… even me.  As soon as they removed the lane line, I got out and tried to avoid catching a glimpse of whatever they were doing as I high stepped out of there.

I had been trying to follow my own advice and take less rest between intervals and have more intervals per set, but the cows chased me away.

500 Free warm-up
5 x 100 Free @ 2:00 (coming in at 1:15)
200 Free warm-down
———-
1200 yards

This doesn’t seem like a tough concept to me, but apparently it’s confusing to a lot of people… specifically those that use the men’s locker room at Gold’s Gym. The TV in the locker room is there as background noise while you are changing. In the morning it is usually tuned to CNN and you listen to a section of the news as you get ready in the morning. It’s usually tune to ESPN during the day and at night. That’s fine. Listen to the latest scores and catch a replay of a great play while you’re getting ready. I have no problem with that.

What I have a problem with is people that think they should sit in the locker room and watch a whole football game. That is not the reason they put a TV in the locker room.

When I go out to swim, I bring my towel and shampoo with me. When I’m done swimming I take a shower and head back to my locker to get dressed. Last night as I got out of the shower I realized that my locker was blocked. There were 4 old men sitting around on benches watching the football game. Most of them were wearing gym shorts or swim suits. It was obvious that none of them had moved in at least 10 minutes. They were glued to the game. They didn’t seem to notice me standing there asking them to move. How many times should you say, “Excuse me,” before getting upset?

I made my way around them to my locker which clued in the two guys sitting on the bench directly in front of my locker that I was going to be naked soon and if they didn’t want a close-up of my butt in their face, they should move. As they moved away they looked upset that I had taken away their good seats for watching the game.

The locker room is not a sports bar! You don’t go to the locker room to watch the game!

Afternoon:
500 Free warm-up
12 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in between 1:12 and 1:20)
300 Free warm-down
———-
2000 yards

Evening:
500 Free warm-up
8 x 100 Free @ 2:15 (coming in @ 1:15)
200 Free warm-down
———-
1500 yards

We finally got up and went swimming at the Orem Rec Center this morning. Charmaine signed us up a while ago, but we hadn’t ever made it in until today. We had to get ID cards made. I had them use my old picture from when I was at Novell.

The pool there is LCM, which is a big change from the SCY pool we’re used to at Gold’s Gym. That’s about the only good thing.

Pros:
1- The pool is 50 meters.
2- The lanes are fairly wide (compared to the skinny lanes at Gold’s Gym).

Cons:
1- There are a lot more people using the pool at the Rec Center than there ever are at Gold’s Gym.
2- They also don’t have any swim clocks. This makes it hard to do anything other than just swim on your own.
3- The lockers require money every time you use them.
4- The lockers are half-size. This means nothing can be hung up, especially my huge gym bag.
5- The locker room is dirty and filled with old men that take 25 minutes to change.

Swimming:
1100 m Free