Thursday, July 20, 2006

Mission: POSSIBLE?

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to swim 4000 yards without stopping at a steady/even pace.

This is the most I have ever swam in my life without stopping.

I accept this mission.

I go to the local pool late after a thunderstorm blew through, and realize when I arrive at 3:10 that there's a sign that announces, "POOL WILL CLOSE TODAY AT 4:00 ON JULY 20TH FOR SWIM MEET."

Poop. I'd like to think I could swim 4000 yards in 45 minutes, but that's not really my pace.

Must think of something. Fast.

I ask the girl at the front desk, as I'm acting all innocent and trying to play stupid, "Oh no--is today the 2oth?" I smile sweetly.

"Yes. Sorry."

Damn. Silly me approach didn't work. I need to think of something more aggressive.

I walk to the pool lap lane, determined to accomplish my mission. See a younger guard getting the lap lanes ready for the meet.

I smile.

"Hi, um, is there ANYTHING I can do to swim past 4:00 today? How about 4:15?"

Guard looks worried. Guard says that pool must close at 4:00 despite the fact that the meet doesn't start until 5:30.

"Please? I promise I'll blend in. Look, I'm wearing a red suit like you guys...if anyone asks, just tell them I'm a guard." I smile.

Guard sighs.

Guard asks uptight boss.

Uptight boss starts himming and hawing and talking about how some residents might get mad if I'm allowed to swim but they are not.

I feed uptight boss the line about my red racing suit again.

Uptight boss is not buying it.

I joke that I was on this team 15 years ago, so I'm just really late for the warm up. Smile smile. Hee hee. Bad joke.

Uptight boss likes this! He is warming up....

I must offer a deal to diffuse this bomb.

"How about I'll just keep swimming until you tell me to stop? Just flag me down."

Uptight boss assures me he can give me no more than 10 minutes.

"Okay, no problem!" I know it will take me longer than 10 minutes extra to do this. I will just blend in with my incognito lap swimming and see if I can make this work.

1000....2000...2500 (BEEP--horn to exit the pool)

Oh boy. Here we go. If I just keep doing my flip turns fast they can't catch me! Flip, flip flip!

They don't seem to notice. I'm blending in.

2600....3000....3700...

Oh no. They've put the lap lanes in and the flags up. They look like they are almost done. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the other team in green suits starting to show up.

Hurry...hurry...time's ticking....

3800....3900....3950.....

4000.

A hand in the water.

"Miss, we're gonna need you to stop now."

I smile.

"Sounds good!"

I hop out. Look at the watch, and am pleased.

Mission accomplished.

My next mission....to ride 5 hours tomorrow and then run 45 minutes off the bike...my longest brick yet.

You'd better believe I'm accepting this one, too.

15 comments:

Wes said...

Freakin fantastic. 4000 meters in the pool! You go girl! That's a great story too. It's amazing how you tri-woman always get'er done :-) Can you tell I live in the south?

tryathlete said...

Excellent!

Jodi said...

That's awesome!

Do you have a secret about what you think about for that long? Any mind puzzles. I get so bored! Not so much on the swim as on the run. It is just a sick joke that you can't wear an ipod for the run in an ironman.

RobbyB said...

SWEET! So...how long did it take?!

And how on earth do you not lose count? I can barely swim a 500 if I don't have a clock to look at.

Chris said...

Gals are so lucky that they have long eyelashes to bat like that. That kind of sweet talking would never work for a guy. :)

Happy 4000! :)

Papa Louie said...

You sweet talking lucky dog. Great workout!

E-Speed said...

hee hee, glad you got in your 4000. I get that feeling too sometimes like if I swim discreetly enough they won't see me!

Cliff said...

Totally unfair...if i did that..there is no way they would let me.

I demand gender equality :D....

5 hr bike + 1 hr run...s.weet stuff...now that's going long.

Andy said...

Great Job on getting them to let you go on for 4000 M. At least you did not tell them how far you were going to swim, they might have not given you any slack then. It must be nice to "negotiate" with the opposite sex. Hey if I was in your shoes, I would have done the exact same thing. By the way, how well did you do on your time, since you seemed to be in a hurry?

As for your brick, I might be the only one in the minority, but if you are doing it for the amount of time (i.e. training for Ironman), great, hammer that sucker out this weekend. However, if you are doing it for "brick workout" purposes, there have been multiple studies done that show when you get over a certain time (i.e. 2-3 hour bike followed by run), the gains you get from the transition into your run, no matter how long the run, diminish drastically.

Just food for thought. In my opinion, as long as you are training hard, you are doing an awsome job! Keep up the great work and have a wonderful weekend!

Murtha...

Lance Notstrong said...

I love the line about being on the team 15 years ago and just being late!!! Classic :-)

Trifrog said...

They didn't try to tell you the roads were closed today, did they?

Afternoon Tea With Oranges said...

Awesome!! I love that story! You ROCK!

RunBubbaRun said...

great job on the swim. Especially in a pool. I loose count after awhile. You're doing great. Good luck on the long brick. You'll do great.

Neese said...

lol way to work it in and congrats on the accomplishment!

BuckeyeRunner said...

Ha! Awesome!