I haven’t been worried about where I would do my swim training for the Half Ironman, because my apartment complex has a heated pool. That plan, however, went out the window when the much-talked-about cold front finally came through and the temperature dropped to 35 degrees. Did I mention that the heated pool is NOT inside?
This wouldn’t have stopped me — I actually did go by the pool to verify that the heat was on, and was validated as I watched the steam rising through the dark cold air — except for two things. First, I didn’t want anyone to glance out their window, see me swimming laps in 35 degree weather, and call the cops thinking I was a crazy person. Second, Jose already thought I was a crazy person for even considering it.
This left me with the options of either not swimming, or finding an indoor pool. My first thought was that I had to swim somewhere today. Skipping my first HI (as I’m going to start appreviating Half Ironman) workout sounded like a really bad way to start things off, and so I next investigated Williams Indoor Pool, where I have swum once before.
Their website says they’re open for lap swim from 5:30 – 10 am and from 4-8 pm. I called around 11 to make sure they were open (since it was a government and school holiday) and got an answering machine. Jose and I headed off to Galveston for the day, and I called again at 4:00 hoping to catch someone. Answering machine again. Ate an early dinner along the cold, gray seawall. Called again. Answering machine again.
We got back to Clear Lake around 6:45, which would have been plenty of time if the pool was open, but at this point I was highly doubting it. It was at this point that I checked the heat in my apartment pool, but I made the mistake of taking Jose with me. He made me promise that I would NOT swim in the outdoor pool, telling me that it’d be hard to do a HI if I was recovering from pneumonia.
Ok, Plan B. I knew that Jen, Becca and Buzz used to occasionally swim at the Clear Lake Rec Center, so I called Jen to see if she knew their hours. She didn’t, but the place was close enough that I decided to head over anyway. If it was closed, at least I could say that I gave it a shot.
I arrived and — score! — it was open. I peered through the foggy windows to see that there were a couple people in the pool, so I waltzed right in. Three old ladies were in the shallow end doing some kind of water exercises. They spotted me immediately.
“Can I help you?” said one. “I was hoping to swim some laps,” I said. “I’ve never been here before — are you still open?”
“Oh,” the lady said, “well, lap swimming time ended at 7:00. We close at 8:00, and 7:00-8:00 is class time.” My shoulders sagged, but before I could think anything else, the lady piped up again — “But we’re the only ones here, and we don’t care if you swim laps. Go ahead! Just introduce yourself to Johnny down there.” She pointed to a bored-looking teenager sitting in the shadows at the other end of the pool. The lifeguard.
Score!
I talked to Johnny, who said he didn’t care if I swam laps as long as the old ladies didn’t care, so I jumped right in and swam. Of course after all the confusion and uncertainty, I’d completely forgotten what my workout was supposed to be, save for the fact that it was 1000 yards total. So I set out to swim that distance at no particular pace, and by the time I was halfway through I had completely lost track of how many laps I’d done thus far. SIGH.
In the end, I’m pretty sure I did either 1000 or 1100 yards. I forgot my watch as well, but judging from the wall clock I swam for ~23 minutes. I was averaging 2 laps in just under 2:00, and took a few quick breathers, so it was probably a round 1000 yards total. I’m assuming that 2 laps (i.e. down and back twice) is 100 yards, although sub-2:00 for that distance seemed a little fast for me. (The rec center’s website says the pool is “Olympic size” but I think they misunderstand the term, because it is most definitely not a 50 meter pool.)
Anyway, first swim workout — DONE. Afterwards, I went and found the staff member on duty, who gave me a pool membership form. It’s $95 for a yearly membership, or $5 per visit. Since a membership would pay for itself after only 19 visits, I’m just going to sign up for the whole year. No more worrying about the weather affecting my swims.
Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to fit in a bike workout in possible freezing rain on Wednesday…