Falling off the Wagon

Getting off the wagon is soo easy. For the last 3 days, I have not seen either the inside of the gym or the pool, and as guilty as I feel about this, I am still alive and quite well. I mean, yes I know I am not the fittest person in the world, but I try, and I do exercise regularly. Anyhow, maybe the Argentine's plan is working better than we expected.

Today tho, I am going to attempt to do spinning at 12:15 and then go swimming in the evening before project runway. We shall see if that is possible, because I need to finish a sock I have been "working on" for 3 weeks now and there has not been too much progress. Yep, I am sorry to report, not a lot of progress has been made. The class is tomorrow, and we are supposed to start the heal - we have already done the toe - so I might have to skip swimming ans stay home and knit.

Now that is quite the conundrum, and a very appropriate one for this blog.

Wet and wild

Last weekend was wet and wild, and it was not just the weather, it rained, and rained and rained and rained in DC, causing all kinds of trouble. Pumps not working, basements flooded, streets closed, etc. It even affected my ride to the airport Monday morning when the cabbie had the nerve to give me a lecture on how much time to give myself to get the airport. I just sat there quietly, and then when he had dropped me at the airport, he started to get away with my bag in his trunk, so at 5 am I started cursing like a sailor, and almost took his cab fair money from him. So angry I was that I walked into the airport, registered for the flight and stomped to the gate without even saying hello to anyone.

Well back the weekend, so I went to my first real straight meet, it sound weird I know, but in 4 years of swimming I have always gone to the gay meets and UMBC, but never the big competitive straight meets. So I went to Colonies Zone, and it was fun, it was different, for once there was no food, so I have to thank the Argentine for packing me some gels, cliff bars and a sandwich. At gay meets there is food, we try to be friendly I guess, or we try to make everyone fat to make ourselves feel less bad about our bodies. Who knows, so at this meet there was nothing but bending machines, and I am usually terrible at carrying cash, so I had to stick to my two bottles of water. That is my big complain, that and the fact that we were the only team who cheered, but I am getting used to that with time.

As usual I swam free and fly, and I did ok. I mean I could go on, and on about how bad I am, and how slow, and how I do not seem to make any progress. But I have to be honest:
a) I am not a born athlete
b) I am 5’3”
c) I have maybe swam 5 times in the last 4 weeks
So all this means that I was not in perfect shape and I did my events ok, I guess. I had a very good 200 free for me, at least 2:35, and a bad 200 fly. The irony is that the only medal I got was for the 200 fly, a bronze. I did a lot of relays, and had a lot of fun. It was a sobering meet I think, because it showed me what real swimmers are. One guy did the 200 free in 1:40, I mean that is my base time for the 100 in long distance events. It was just amazing to see people like this swim. On of the more humbling moments for me, was at a relay, we had two teams in the same heat and we were swimming in lanes next to each other. I was doing the last 100 free, and I had plenty of time, turned to my right and my ageless neighbor was going to swim the same, for the other relay, he is 10 times faster than me. I realized that because of the rest of the people I would hit the water at least 10 seconds before he did, and I thought this is my chance to not be wiped out. Well I am 5’3” and not a sprinter and he is 6’1” and a sprinter, so I jump in and swim, and try to go as fast as I can, and there I am moving my legs as fast as I can, and trying to elongate my stroke, and as I do my third flip turn I just see him coming and I just knew he is going to overtake me, but I thought I had a chance, so closed my eyes and swam, as fast as I could. I came close the wall, as I touched the pad, I noticed him waiting for me in the lane next to me. Dang! At least I have the 1650 I guess, that is until the Canuck becomes too fast, which he already has.

Competition

It is very rare that I enjoy an athletic competition. I have never been an athlete, or even coordinated enough to be considered athletic, but last weekend I went on my first meet of the year. It was in Baltimore, not Baltimore, Catonsville, in Maryland and I had a great time. It was a short and sweet meet, lasted 5 hours each day and even though the ride was long, we all managed to have a great time. In my case, I swam 11 events, and that is a ton, really, not to boast or anything but I swam:
200 free
200 fly
50 free
100 free
50 fly  on a relay
800 free
500 free
100 fly
50 free  on a relay
50 fly  for a relay
1650  free

It was a lot of swimming, and it was not fast, but Sunday as I went up the stairs of Lauriol plaza for lunch, my legs felt wobbly, like I was barely able to walk. But for once the satisfaction was there, I definitely need to improve my times, and better yet I need to find one event I will try to do really well, because some of them were back to back, and so I did well in the 200 fly but terrible in the 50 free, terrible. Also in a short meet like this, I had some good times in the relays that I am not sure of, because no one pays attention to those and they are 50’s anyway. But most importantly for the first time in my swimming career – I guess I can call it that – I went to a meet and it made me look forward to the next one. In the years before I would go to a meet and be so happy when it was over, it was stressful and difficult for me, but this time it wasn’t. I know everyone and was able to focus on some different events – 200 fly here I come – and really relished in the competition part even if I did not win anything. So there ya go, something might be changing in me, or I am just getting better at swimming. Yay for me! Now I do need to work on my times though, because even if I padded some of my seed times a little, I need to start putting down more realistic times in the future

A tale of two cancellations and an apology (Part I)

First things first, I need to send a big hug and apology to the couple from Chicago. I missed them this weekend, and I am truly sorry for that. I send them an email on Friday, but dumb ass I am they were arriving on that day. I know their stay in this city was not as fabulous as one would expect, and that they had to go back. They did get to see some people and I hope that at least that was nice. In my defense I am having the busiest time I have ever had at any job I my career. This is good and bad, all at the same time, because it leaves me no time to

Ok, that is off my chest then the next part of our tale. Saturday after a good swim practice, I went to brunch with the swimmers, and to my surprise and every one else’s Flawless came both swimming and to breakfast. I have to say that just looking at the man, made my morning. So at least the weekend started on the right foot. That streak was not to continue. After brunch I went home and cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. I had clothes all over the place and because I knew that there was a chance I might have company some time later on the weekend I would not have my apartment a mess. Things were put away, laundry was done and I even did the kitchen and some dishes. When I was done with this, I got a call from the Diplomat who was sick, sick, sick and he cancelled our dinner plans. I was bummed, but I understood. I was on my way to the gym and the fates knowing what was in store, had the Cook – an ex of mine, that cooks terrifically and loves entertaining – send me a text inviting for dinner. So there like Maria in the Sound of Music I could say that when a door closes and window opens. I got to the gym and did weights and cardio – cuz I hate my body, but also because I had not done chisel during the week and figured some weights are not going to kill me. I finished my workout, stretched and went home to get dressed and ready. Dinner was perfect; I was the substitute boyfriend for the Cook, since the real thing was sick. It was awkward, but we were only 4 people and of course I did a Mrs. Henderson and proceed to monopolize people’s attention and be witty and flirty and very entertaining. The food was terrific; I had worked out enough that I had 3 slices of yogurt cake – they were very small my dear Scientist – and a couple of drinks. The cook made a killer Rose Kennedy’s, just for me. The guests and the host were supposed to go to “Blowoff” after dinner, I had none such intentions, and proceeded to keep them entertained until 11:30 when they were also tired and went home. This is where I could write some fiction and say how I had sex with the ex, but no. I did not. It was not offered and I was tired and sore. I left the cook’s at midnight and went home like your everyday gay Cinderella.

Sunday morning came and I woke up at 7:30, going to bed early was he culprit and I started preparing for the day. I folded some clothes I had left on the dryer and checked the movie times for later. Why? A date had been arranged for the afternoon.

To be continued …

Oh and a nice surprise, I got an adaptor to move my pictures from my camera to the laptop and you will start seeing some new pictures in here.

Because I have little to say, my head is aching and I need to be here till 5, I am posting some pretty pictures:





No gym for me today ...