The shuttle is rolling out to the launch pad today after three months of repairs to the external tank. You might think that I knew this ahead of time, since I work at JSC and am assigned to this launch. But no, I found out via a cnn.com article. Figures.
Last night I hit the pool for 1500 yards. After 1100, I decided to throw in a 300 yard time trial so I can update my predicted time for the upcoming Combat Tri. I have no idea what I wrote down when I registered, but probably around 6:00, which is too slow. Last night I did the swim in 5:20, so that’s what I’m hoping to update to. Combat is a pool swim, which you might think is nice because the water’s clean and clear — but I prefer open water for triathlons. In a pool swim, everyone has to predict their finish time and you are lined up accordingly. Very few people ever predict their time exactly right, and since you start in 10-second intervals, you always find yourself either needing to pass someone, or with someone trying to pass you. And passing in a pool is not easy
My workout went well, but I was pretty frustrated with some of the other swimmers. I know everyone has equal right to use the pool but when it’s crowded, I suggest the following rules, based on my observation that there are far more casual swimmers than there are in-training swimmers like me:
1) If you are going to do very slow laps of elementary backstroke, share a lane.
2) If you are going to talk to your friend in the next lane every time you finish a lap, share a lane.
3) If you are going to do the old lady kickboard thing, share a lane.
4) If you are going to do butterfly, just don’t, unless you really know how.
The pool only has 6 lanes. One of those lanes is half-blocked at one end by the stairs to get out of the pool. And that’s the lane I ended up sharing with another girl as the rest of the pool dwellers elementary backstroked, talked, and kickboarded their way — slowly — down the pool and back. Thankfully the girl I was sharing with swam at pretty much the same pace as me, and it wasn’t a problem. Halfway through my workout, one of the kickboarders finally left and I got a lane to myself.
As I cooled down, I decided to retrieve the pair of goggles that I’d seen sitting at the bottom of the deep end each time I swam down the pool. I took a deep breath, swam down 12 feet, got the goggles, and DANG IT I forgot how much your ears hurt if you haven’t been down to the bottom of the deep end in a while. My ears hurt for 10 minutes! Ow.