A Whimper and a Bang

If Monday was a bang and a whimper, Tuesday was a whimper and a bang. The air conditioning went out at our house Monday night so we had a pretty restless evening leaving not only me and my wife exhausted, but the dog and cat also. The air man was supposed to call me at 1:00 Tuesday afternoon, but this ain't my first rodeo. I put on my fuel belt, stuck my phone into the pocket, and headed out the door determined to stay near just in case he called. I did a lot of short laps around the neighborhood listening for the phone to ring. It never did. We set a record high temperature, I set a record bad run, and I tapped out at a wimpy, slow 4.6 miles.

My wife came home at five to a cranky dog, a lazy cat, and hot house. Her husband wasn't in too good of a mood either. She normally goes to exercise class on Tuesday night and although I wanted to swim, I offered to stay home and wait on the air man if she wanted to make her workout. She said she was too tired to go after a night of no sleep so I went to the pool.

There is an old man, John Misterfeld, who usually gets there the same time I do. He doesn't swim but goes to the deep end and treads water for up to two hours at a time! (I'm not sure I could do that). He was a Mississippi State offensive lineman back in the day who has had both knees replaced. Last week, I never saw him, and I didn't realize how accustomed I had grown to his presence. I became terrible worried, tracked his phone number down, and gave him a call to see it he was OK. Anyway, he was there last night, which made me happy. When he is present, I swim longer than I do when he was not there. Normally I'm the only one in the pool except for him. Just having him there makes me feel not so alone.

I swam

2,600
4 X 50 @ 1:15
400 medium paddles
4 X 50 @ 1:15
500 small paddles
4 X 50 @ 1:15
600 finger paddles
4 X 50 @ 1:15
700 swim
6 X 100 pull with small paddles @ 2:00
Total: 6,200 meters.

Not a bad day at the pool thanks in part to John Misterfeld who said he would make me get out first. I did. And really not a bad day when you consider how pathetically I ran the same afternoon. I've got a good start on a monster swim week. Randy Beets and I are supposed to train Saturday, and we are planning a huge swim. I am going to pack the tent up and everything. We are going to focus on swimming, saving any running for afterwards.

For the week, I have already swum 11,500 meters. Yeehaa!

The air man is supposed to come to day. Do you think I am waiting all afternoon when the pool is wide open? Not a chance.