The most hard core thing . . .

Those last few posts prompted me to say this. Maybe this isn't really "hard core", and maybe this belongs in the "You-know-you-are-a-swimmer-when" thread. If I am going to travel out of town anywhere, one of my primary to-do items before I leave is to know where I am going to swim. Maybe it's the hotel I will stay at. Maybe it's a nearby YMCA. And I call ahead of time. "How big is your pool? What are your lap swim times? Do you accept my YMCA AWAY membership? ..." And when I'm talking to a person from the hotel and he doesn't know what lap swimming is, or how large his pool is, I know I'm likely to be disappointed if I expect to do lap swimming there, so I make sure I know where the nearest YMCA is.

i'd have to say the most hardcore thing i've done to get my swim in involved having to hang up my suit and towel in the ladies' restroom at work! i had late practice one tuesday night (till 9pm). so by the time i got home, it was about 9:20, so naturally my stuff didn't get hung up to dry until at least 10pm. my only problem was the fact that i had to work overtime the next day (til 6 pm) and practice that day was at 6:30. so i didn't have time to get home after work, so i had to pack up my (still) wet suit and towel and take it to work with me. i was just going to lay stuff out on the seat of my car, but the high was only supposed to be 18 degrees, and i wasn't looking forward to having to put on a frozen suit after an 11 hour work day. so i took the suit and towel and hung it up in the ladies' room. and got made fun of all day long for making it smell like a pool... that was last feburary (of '04) and i've still not lived it down... :p and unfortunately, all of this could have been avoided by having a second suit. but... i had just moved and had managed to leave all my other suits at my old apartment (i was moving in stages, which in hindsight was not a good idea!) oh well, i just knew i wasn't letting a wet suit keep me from practicing! ;)

Wow, the things we swimmers do to get in a little pool time is sometimes startling. I think the most hardcore thing I've done was last Sunday. I needed to go to the Sporting Goods store to get me a new pair of Speedo's since one of the first two pairs I bought nine months ago (Yeah, I take GOOD care of my stuff! :p) is basically on it's last leg... Luck as I knew it was by my side that afternoon when I saw that the store was having a sale on all of their swimwear (In January, it's not unusual down here) so I ended up buying FOUR pairs of Speedo's! How's that for you? The one thing I learned about being a swimmer is that you can never have too many spair suits in the unlikely event that you notice your absolute favorite suit has turned into a lycra vail. :yikes: *None of my female teammates would want to see an over-exposed Sonic!*:p

I think I just qualified to post something in this thread. I worked yesterday from 11 a.m. - 4:30 a.m. (not unusual for a Sunday, unfortunately) and decided, rather than get three hours of sleep before going back to work, I'd go to the pool instead. Luckily my gym is open 24 hours, and I took full advantage this morning. I just know by four o'clock this afternoon I'll be dead. Right now I feel surprisingly alert. Adam

I've essentially revamped my entire schedule around my gym's posted lap times. I swim in the middle of the afternoon and most days, I have the pool to myself. It's heaven!