Bumper Swimming

The Bike

The good news is that I finally got to introduce my self to my bike on Sunday afternoon. How well did it go? Let me put it this way… If I were to rate my ride on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “It was quite obvious that I was born to ride” and 1 being “Daddy please put training wheels back on this thing” I was a solid 5. Maybe a 5.1.

As it was, I didn’t really expect much.

I don’t even have the OK from my sports doc to do anything outside of the pool yet. I just couldn’t waste such a gloriously beautiful spring day. The ride really wasn’t intended to be anything other than a, “Hi, I’m your owner. I’m gonna ride you a lot this summer.” I only took it around the block.

Four miles. 20 minutes. Not long enough to do anything other than remember how to balance and shift a few gears. My two youngest children thought it was pretty cool though. They cheered as I spun around the cul-de-sac. Heck, my three year old has never even seen me ride a bike before. That should tell you everything you need to know.

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The Swim

Is there any sort of protocol or etiquette or swimming out of your lane and bashing into the guy in the lane next to you? Is that something that you just ignore? I only ask because the “gentleman” in the lane next to me was either a) drunk b) dizzy c) drunk AND dizzy d) Lord of the pool and not obligated to stick to a lane. I suspect it was C. I have no doubt he would have answered D.

Here’s what happened: I had just made the turn and was on my way back when this guy slammed into/swam over the top of me. I know I’ll have to expect contact during an actual race. It was completely unexpected this morning. I waited at the end of the pool and when he swam up I thought he would stop and say something. He made his turn and just kept swimming. I watched him zigzag between lanes 6.5 and 7.5 as he swam another length. I just shook my head and continued my workout.

I saw him in the locker room. My exact words to him were, “What was up with that?”

“With what?” he asked.

“The contact during our swim,” I replied.

“Oh,” he said, “That happens sometimes.”

IT DOES?!

I wanted to say, “Dude, it’s not bumper cars out there. Please be careful because I’m not that great of a swimmer and it’s hard enough for me to get from one of the pool and back without having to watch out for you.”

I didn’t though.

In all I swam 700 today. I warmed up with 100 kick and cooled down with 200 more kick with fins. Not good. Not great. But, it’s a huge improvement from where I started. Next week I plan to test myself to see how much I’ve improved.