Saturday, May 9, 2009

So this is what the other YMCA looks like

I find myself torn between two swimming pools.

The weather was crappy today. Cold. Cloudy. Raining. Oh, and did I mention the lake flies have returned? Because they have. And that means I'll most likely be moving my workouts indoors. Or to the other side of town where lake flies don't exist.

So since it was cruddy out, I decided I wanted to get in a an indoor run followed by a short swim. I could have done it at my downtown YMCA, the one I always use since I can see it from my office window, but I didn't want to get up super early this morning in order to make sure the swim was done by the time the pool closed at 11 a.m.

Instead, I slept in and opted for an afternoon workout at the other YMCA across town. The super nice YMCA, the one with an indoor ice rink and soccer field, a ton of fancy new equipment and a super nice pool with eight lanes for laps.

I was in love.

I got there and reacquainted myself with the treadmill. I knocked out a 3-mile run in 32 minutes. Not bad. Actually felt good. And there was no one waiting for a treadmill, so I probably could have tacked on another mile.

But the pool was calling my name.

And we became fast friends. The water felt so good. And it was bright, unlike the downtown YMCA where the pool doesn't have very good lighting so you kind of feel like you're in a dungeon. And the big digital clock poolside which let me kind of keep track of how fast I was swimming.

Sigh. It was wonderful. So wonderful I completely spaced and forgot how far I had swam at one point. So I might have swam 1,000 yards. Or it could have been 1,100 yards. I'm not sure. But I do know it took me about 25 minutes. And even though this was only my second swim in forever, I could already notice a difference in my stamina. I didn't need as long of breaks every 100 yards and actually at the end of the workout, when I was tired, I swam 200 yards straight through. I think that's a good sign. And according to the big red digital clock, at one point I was swimming around a 2 minutes per 100 yard pace. Not bad.

Afterwards I treated myself to a little hot tub time, which was also wonderful.

My first trip to the cross town YMCA was good. I was glad I made it today. And I think I might try to figure some kind of schedule out so that I can do one of my swim workouts there each week. Because although I fell in love with this pool instantly, I do like my downtown pool, bad lighting and all.

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Looking back at some numbers, I'd say I'm pretty happy with my week. Workouts six of the seven days. 41 miles on my bike. 2,700 yards in the pool and a 3 mile run. The only thing I'd change would be to have a few more miles in my running shoes. That's what I'll work on this week.

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