Taking It Easy

Actually, the title of this post is just to throw Von SmallHaussen off the scent . . . The real title should be “Race Practice”.

I was working from home today, systemising a firm’s quotation process - currently it’s about 4-8 hours of black art, which I’m turning into 4-8 minutes of filling in the numbers on a form. The problem is that trying to make sense of my was one of those jobs that was always going to feel like banging my head against the wall. Coupled with the need to dredge up my O’Level maths from 20 years ago to convert the client’s rules of thumb into hard & fast formulae and data, this was a challenging day!

So by five, I’d had enough, and took Dalmatian for a walk along the sea front. I’d forgotten that we’re only just past the New Moon, and was surprised to see the tide pretty high. By the time I was home 40 minutes later, I’d decided that today was the day for a Swim-Bike session - just like Bill suggested a month or so back.

So I got changed, politely turned down the slice of cake that was offered, and then ate it anyway (it’s fuel, right?), set out my bike kit, and flip-flopped the 500m down to the beach, arriving at one minute past six, just in time to pass the life guards who’d just knocked off for the day.

Fortunately, the Lifeboat crew seemed to be on hand, doing some boat maintenence, or whatever it is that lifeboat crews do when they’re not out being heroes or raising funds. So I figured that without being too presumptuous, I’d be pretty safe.

The water wasn’t too clear though, after the recent blowy, rainy weather . . . and the waves seemed a lot bigger up close than they did from the promenade . . . and I am supposed to be taking it easy. So I only did one lap of the harbour, and didn’t venture more than a couple of dozen yards out into the open sea - around 500m in all.

And just before I got out, I swam under a carrier bag some eejit had left on the beach, and was now floating in the water. I didn’t notice it until it slid over my foot - one of those “what the bloody hell was that” moments. I don’t like jelly fish at all - I’ll throw women and children aside to escape ‘em. And this felt just like a jelly fish. Eeeek!

But of course, I didn’t [quite] panic - I’m a Roughy Toughy Triathlete, and made of much sterner stuff than that.

Anyway, that was the swim over . . . just the run home and bike to go!

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 08/15/2007
• Time: 12:00:00
• Total Time: 00:12:00.00
• Distance: 498.9 m
• Average Pace: 2:24.32/100m

Filed under: Injury, Swim, Triathlon