The Perils of Swimming Again

With the end of Winter Training season, racing season is just around the corner. No, not the crappy running racing season that never actually seems to stop. Nor the duathlon racing season which happens to fill the void between winter and racing. Whereas I recognize that those are real sports with outstanding athletes, they're just not good sports. I'm not really sure why those amazing athletes waste their skills on rudimentary endeavors. Triathlons are just a couple of weeks away!

In the Winter, I avoid the Y mostly because I'm too lazy to drive to the pool. I put off swimming until the last minute and even then I do it half-assed. Now that the first real sporting events are on the horizon, I have to decide between risking in some chlorine exposure or sucking in the water. Since I naturally suck, I don't need to add to the embarrassment. Therefore, I've been spending a lot more time at the YMCA lately.

(Sorry, still stuck on the Star Wars thing.)

One of the dangers of swimming, and one of my personal pet peeves, is that whatever song was playing on the radio will remain stuck in my head for the entire swim set. Even worse is that it's not the entire song, mostly the chorus. I've found that I typically cannot remember the rest of the lyrics and remember how many laps are in a 200 at the same time. (I have difficultly counting a 200 without additional distractions.) I doubt that I'm the only one.

The song doesn't even have to be good.

When you go to the Y, especially for the purpose of swimming, you really cannot avoid the locker room. Most pools, my Y included, force me to go through the Men's Locker Room just to gain access to the pool deck. I suppose that I could go through the Ladies or the Family Locker Rooms.

 Quick poll: Which is less creepy? Grown man in Ladies LR or in Family LR without a child?

 Now, I get to the Y before work. This is pre-8:00 am. None of the people fit the conventional definition of young, per se. There are 2 distinct attitudes of how to behave in the locker room: those who show their junk with reckless abandon and those who cover their junk at most but the shortest, necessary periods of times. If you separate these groups of people, there's a distinct age disparity.