Back in the Saddle

Been back for a week and a half, but have had no time to write. Vacation was a blast except for the last two days. The wife and I both got sick eating some bad buffet food. Trip was awesome anyway. Did a ton of snorkeling, hanging out with the wife and relaxing. Definitely a well deserved trip that came at just the right time. Below is a couple of pics. The day before we left, there was this water spout that came within like 200 yds of the condo pool and ended up coming onto the beach right next door. I have seen water spouts before, but never that close.

Me at the entrance to the Tulum ruins.

My wife and I at Tulum.

The ginormous pool at the resort. About the size of 3 football fields. This is just one level. It had two swim up bars, three "islands" with palm trees, two volleyball nets and a bunch of concrete lily pads to be able to cross without going all the way around. Top notch!

The water spout.

My wife and her new friend.

Got back on a Saturday and haven't stopped since. Sunday after we got back was Father's day. Spent that out at my parent's house in Central. I barbecued since none of the girls wanted to do it. I cook for them on Mother's day, but then they decide to barbecue on Father's Day and I have to do the cooking. Such a scam! The kids have been taking swimming lessons in the afternoons since we got back and are doing great.

As planned, I have been hitting the training full speed ahead since we got back. Here is a run down of the last week and a half:

Monday: Swim 1600 yds and lift weights, Tuesday: Run 4.5 miles @ 9:15 pace and 1 hour spin class, Wednesday: Rest, Thursday: Swim 1500 yds and run 5 with 3 mile tempo @ 7:55, Friday: Run 3.7 @ 9:06 pace, Saturday: Bike 25 miles @ 18.3 in the hills of St. Franny, Sunday: Run 5.8 miles @ 9:44 pace, Monday: Swim 1700 yds and lift weights, Today: Ran 3 miles @ 9:13 pace then 1 hour spin class and run 1 mile @ 7:55 pace

That's 8 workouts in 9 days. It only gets tougher from here. This next week is just kind of the warm-up for my 12 week training schedule for HOLY Toledo. It is going to be brutal. It is in some ways worse than a half. The swim is just a little shorter, the bike is 16 miles shorter but up hills that are monstrous for this part of the world and the run is 10 miles of agony. The run is hilly, off-road for a while and has sections know as the pit of despair. People who have done it say the run is equivalent to 15 to 20 miles on paved flat ground. The winners are running 7:30-8:00 pace, which are guys that normally run 6's and 6:30's in normal races.

On to the only real excitement I have had besides my family and all of their shenanigans of day to day life. After reading every one's blog, it seems like everyone has some annoying swimmer at the pool that they frequent. Well I met that guy on Sunday at our local Y. The teen pool was closed for the day due to a "filtration" problem, whatever that means. So that meant that everyone who brought their kids to swim on Sunday had to use the 25 yard lap pool. The lap pool normally has 2 lanes available for lap swim and the other 4 lanes open for play swim on Sundays. But with the other pool closed, there were a ton of people in the lap pool. Four people were sharing the 2 lanes to get in their lap swimming. I show up with my two kids around 4 and got in the pool. We were there about 30 minutes when this guy in one of the lap lanes start to make a scene. Some kids start playing with the covers on the skimmer basket openings and this dude starts whining to the lifeguard. He starts yelling from the center lane across the pool to the lifeguard in the loudest voice possible, "Hey lifeguard, don't you see those kids pulling the cover off the skimmer basket opening, they're not supposed to be doing that. Someone could fall in and get hurt if they leave those covers off. You need to stop them from pulling of the covers." First of all, no kidding and second, you sound like my 4 year old telling on her brother. Then some kid rested on the lane divider for about 10 seconds. "Hey lifeguard, they are not supposed to be holding on to the lane marker, you need to make them stop. They aren't supposed to be doing that." Once again, no kidding and again you sound like a 4 year old. Then the one that ticked me off. About 30 kids had kick boards and were swimming/playing with them in the pool. One of the kids got on the side of the pool, tossed his kick board in and proceeded to jump on it like a surfboard. The kid fell back and came about a foot from hitting his head on the side of the pool. So the pool police decided that no kid was allowed to have a kick board. He got out of his lane went to the first lifeguard and pleaded his case once again in the loudest voice possible for everyone to hear, "Hey lifeguard, kick boards are only for lap swimming not recreational swimming. All these kids should not be allowed to have kick boards." She either didn't care or thought he was just being a bully (as I did) and basically did nothing about it. The second lifeguard basically had the same attitude. He finally got some action out of the fourth lifeguard. She decided that the only way to get this guy off of their backs was to take all of the kick boards away from kids. He jumped back into his lane and commented to the guy sharing a lane with him, "Its about time one of them listened."

Now the Y may have some policy that kids aren't supposed to have kick boards, I can't see why if they do, but at that point it wasn't about policy or safety (I have kids and they can make flat ground unsafe). It was about him bullying the lifeguards till he got what he wanted. Me being the non-confrontational, accommodating person that I am(couldn't be farther from the truth), I scream out "Just swim and quit killing all the fun for the rest of the people in the pool." That got him hot. He turns to the guy in his lane and says "Who said that?" The guy tells him someone from my area and he turns and I am looking dead at him (while trying to catch my kids jumping off the side of the pool). He swims over and gets about a foot from my nose and proceeds to explain to me the dangers of kids having kick boards and swimming safety in general with steam coming out of his ears. I proceed to politely (if you believe that, you'll believe anything) tell him that it is not his job or the lifeguards job to make sure that kids don't act like brats and the whole pool shouldn't be punished for one kids lack of forethought, since kids are always worried about what is safest. And that additionally, if the lifeguards thought kids having kick boards was unsafe than they would have not allowed the kids to have them in the first place and that the kids parents were around and they should handle it not him. I smiled, turned to the side and continued to catch my kids jumping off the side. He rambled on about safety and the lifeguards duty and some other stuff until he finally realized that I didn't care. He got in his lane, grabbed his kick board like a badge of honor and swam about 100 yds more. Flustered with the whole situation, he finally got out of the pool and left. Two people that had been waiting for 30 minutes finally got a chance to swim in the lane after they had waited on this guy who had actually only swam about 5 minutes during that 30 minute period because he had been worried about everyone else but himself.

Could my attitude have been better, was I being just as big a jerk as him and was what I did right? Yes, Yes and no. Sometimes though you just have to be a bully to deal with a bully. Was the kid doing something that was unsafe? Some would say yes, but if we stopped kids from doing anything that was a little unsafe, than they might as well stay inside and play video games their whole life. Hey wait, that is what a lot of them do anyway! Would I do it again? Yes. Soapbox moment over.

Looking forward to finishing out the week and spending some time with the family this weekend at a juvenile arthritis camp for my daughter. She is looking forward to it every day.