I am the MASTER

The master of bringing up the rear in Lane 2, that is.

So I decided to head up to the local Masters swim for the first time in the pool. Shouldn't you swim a little first on your own, TST, so you don't get your rear end handed to you by all the fishies at masters? Why yes. Logic says that would be a good idea. However, I am cheap. And I have a free week pass to swim with the masters club, versus the eight dolla drop in fee at my old gym.

So masters it is. Who needs logic?

Now, I had a bad experience at the one time I went to masters back in '07. I showed up and met the WRONG guy. You know the type--the guy that is just so full of awesomeness and smugness that you can't possibly share the same water with him. Yeah, That Guy.

So I'm all trying to be friendly and stuff, which was a feat in and of itself, because at the time I was 10 weeks pregnant and felt like POO. So I just walked up and introduced myself to the first person I saw, which happened to be That Guy, and he kept sizing me up.

What do you swim? What are your times? What do you DO?

I told him I was a former swimmer turned triathlete and stuff. He asked what races I do, and I had just finished Ironman Wisconsin, so I told him that was my last race.

He said, with a smug little sneer on his face, "Did you finish over or under 10 hours?"

My reply was, "Well, since the winning female was 10:01, I'm PRETTY sure I finished over 10 hours."

Butt munch.

Anyway, that rubbed me the wrong way and that, combined with lovely morning-sickness heaving with every flip turn, pretty much kept me away from masters from then on.

But I decided to give it a go this past Monday. Why now, you may ask? Well, the answer is quite simple.

Hi, my name is Trisaratops and I am a pool slacker.

I am a decent swimmer who really has no reason not to turn in better swim times, except for the fact that I am a bona fide pool SLACKA. As in, when I swim by myself, I just putz around and don't really push myself very hard. And since no one can seem to figure out a way to install a 25 yard pool in the comfort of my own basement, I just don't swim enough to be very good.

(I don't ask for much, people. In my basement. That's all I really want.)

This might explain why my bike and run times dropped dramatically after I had Bug, but my pool times stayed the same or, in some cases, even got slower. BOO.

I'm happy to report that A) That Guy wasn't there, or at least stayed far away from me and B) I had a BLAST! It was hard, though. I definitely got my rear end handed to me on a platter. And I SO brought up the tail of lane 2. But you know what? It wasn't the slowest lane, I'm 9 weeks postpartum, and it was my first time in the pool. So I'm going to let it slide. And I definitely went a lot harder and longer than if I was by myself. I missed a few send offs here and there and had a foot cramp up, but still managed to hit somewhere around 2400 yards. Not too shabby!

My lane mates were super cool, too. They kept checking to make sure I was okay and told jokes on our rest breaks and stuff. And I think just having some people in my lane helped me push myself harder than I'd do on my own.

So I'm hoping to make this a weekly workout, and maybe if Bean sleeps well Friday nights I can even hit Saturday morning. In the summer, they swim outside in the wee hours of the morning, which I LOVE because everyone's asleep and no one "needs" me--hence, no mommy guilt. But for the next month or so it will require some juggling.

But I think this little relationship I have with masters is on the mend. :)