INVASION!

Well, it felt like an invasion.

Wednesdays and Fridays are my swim/bike days. Usually, I do my swimming in the morning at the Y (where they have a wonderful 25 yard saline pool) and will ride in the afternoon. This morning, though, while I got up in time, I was simply not motivated to move quickly enough to get myself to the pool. Instead, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and ride my bike to work.

I had a wonderful ride in. During lunch, I rode into town, grabbed my lunch from the Safeway, and rode back to work. After work, I rode home, after a little detour to add a couple miles to my ride.

That meant I had to swim in the afternoon. I don't like swimming when the pool is crowded with children, so I decided to wait until 9:00 p.m. when I knew all the kids would be clearing out and only the adults were left. When I arrived, there were still a few children/families playing, but there was an open lane, which I took. Within a few minutres, all the kids and parents had left the area. The only people left were a few high school kids and a couple of serious swimmers (me and one other person). This is what I live for. A quiet pool with a lane to myself.

A few minutes later, my solitude was soundly intruded upon. As I approached the end of the lane, I could tell there was someone on deck. I ignored them, did my flip turn and finished the lap. When I returned and got my feet solidly under me and my head out of the water, I saw several oriental men making their way to the kiddie pool. The kiddie pool? Well, whatever, so long as they stay out of my lane.

Not 5 minutes later, a bunch of women showed up! At this point, they all proceeded to congregate in the main pool and they had no compunction about barging into lanes without so much as a by your leave. My Y pool had been invaded by a chinese tour group! And they were really annoying. I mean, one gal had on a swim suit that had sequins on it with a flouncy skirt. C'mon! SEQUINS??? On a bathing suit?

Okay, so I reminded myself to take this as an opportunity to practice mental toughness and focusing skills. I managed the mental toughness in that I did my best to ignore them when they moved into my lane. I tried very hard not to be distracted by them sitting on the bottom of the pool and all the other antics that were going on. Eventually, I lost my concentration. I had no idea where I was in my workout. I no longer knew what set I was on, or even what repetition. I finally gave up and focused everything I had on doing a solid 500.

When I was done, I was supposed to do 6x50 of kicking easy, but I'll be damned. One of them stole my board! I gave up. I got out of the water and approached the lifeguard. I asked her if they had changed the adult lap swim times. She said they had not, that the tour group was just as big a surprise to her. In fact, she went on, normally it was pretty quiet in the pool after 9 p.m.

Well, maybe next time I won't skip out on mymorning swim. Lesson learned.