Monday, February 27, 2012

Love..Hate...

I'm a triathlete. As a "jack of all trades, master of none" it suits me right down to the bone.  I might not be a super-stud at any one genre, but being mediocre at three sports works out well for me. For whatever reason, I'm the most "mediocre" at swimming. I think the fact that swimming is SO technique-dependent makes the progress frustratingly slow and lots of very hard work only produces minimal time gains in a race. For me, anyway...

I LOVE riding my mountain bike. I'm getting pretty darn good at running and I actually like doing it where I once dreaded it. I'm not fond of swimming. Maybe that's not entirely correct. I'm good in open water, better than most with my lifeguarding and surf experience. I'm always playing catch up coming out of the water and it's a LOT frustrating.

You've heard me piss and moan about my city pool (small, crowded, odd hours). When we moved in back in June, I was excited to hear the city was opening a brand new, Olympic-sized pool. I waited for 6 months only to have the opening delayed a month so the water slide could be installed. Killing me...

It's FINALLY HERE.


Look! It's a REAL POOL!!!!!



If you're looking at the wet deck and thinking "who swims in the rain?" you're totally blowing it. Rain swims are the BEST. 


More good news: long course (meters) on Tues and Thursday mornings. YES!!!


The bad part? No suit dryers. LAME, but I'll get over it.



More good stuff. The pool is part of a huge sports park. Included with the park is a 1-mile running track that snakes its way through and around the pool and fields. A PERFECT spot to run hard. I get bored running around a 400 meter track lap after lap and this feels like a great alternative. I tested it out Sunday and dug it big time. Lots of dogs and rug rats on the trails. It's funny how people miss or ignore the big ass sign at the front that says "No Dogs Allowed in This Park". 


There's the pre-requisite ball-sports fields (Soccer, Football, Baseball). I was stoked to see the High School Lacrosse team suiting up for practice. Take a closer look; that's TURF people. Can you say barefoot strides? Yes, please! 

I'm thrilled to have this open a mere 5 minutes from my house and parking is even free. Add in that the pool now has lap swim all day and I couldn't be happier...except for the suit dryer thing.

First Xterra race the last weekend in March. Lots of "wet time" needed between now and then. Glub, glub.

-E

2 comments:

allison said...

Nice, dude! That place looks awesome! Almost makes me want to take up swimming and running!

DougSully said...

Nice facility! Wish I had something that nice 5 minutes from my house. SCORE!!