Good Sunday

Sunday started out much like Saturday did -- with me looking at the weather report and deciding that I wasn't in the mood for a frostbitten run. Instead, I spent the early hours doing some miscellaneous chores, and thinking about swim practice.

The Foothills Swim Team kids were having a meet at the Ridge, but were supposed to be finishing up about the time we were scheduled to start. I figured that it wouldn't be a problem to have the Masters Team come in to start our warmup while the younger folks were cooling down and wandering off to the locker rooms. But what I didn't know was that the post-competition activities included a Mega-Buffet, set up right there on the pool deck.

Oh sure, I had eaten a hearty bowl of oatmeal before heading to the pool, so I knew that I was fueled well enough to make it through our practice. But merely knowing that is not an adequate shield against the mental and emotional distress caused by walking by a boatload of delicious food when you can't have any!

At one time in my life, I ate donuts at a pace worthy of Homer Simpson. But over the years, I've learned to resist them like a good 12-stepper. So if this would've been merely a donut display, I'd have been fine. But it wasn't.

They had trays and trays full of cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage, muffins, hash browns, and even brownies! Cinnamon rolls AND brownies? C'mon! Do you seriously expect me to resist those? And if the long tables piled with these delights weren't enough of a temptation, all the kids had platefuls of the goodies, and were lounging on every single square inch of pool deck. It was not possible to be anywhere at all in the facility without being inches away from a heaping platter of warm & aromatic drippy-sweet goodness. Within a few seconds of entering the building, I was a trembling, drooling slave to demon hunger.

And to add insult to injury, no one offered to share any of this bounty with me. In fact, when I asked the guy who was dishing out the rolls if there'd be any extras, he said "Hey, do your workout first, and then we'll talk!"

Grrrr.

So, it was only through an inspirational triumph of discipline that I and my teammates were able to focus our concentration on swimming -- and proceed to perform our scheduled workout. And of course, while we were warming up, the party-cleanup gnomes snuck in and spirited away all of the leftovers. Suddenly, the parents and kids had vanished (along with all signs of sustenance), and we were left alone with our sugarplum dreams, kickboards, and pullbuoys.

What were we to do, other than just go ahead and have a murderous workout? Huh?

That's what we did. We mixed it up well, doing a lot of stroke swimming, kicking, and then tackling a long set of short-interval freestyle. I was swimming reasonably well, and working hard enough that I was pretty well spent by the end of it. I think everyone else was, too. And guess what everyone was talking about when they got out of the pool? That's right -- food!

Tanner had already eaten when I called, so I just went home and ate the rest of my leftover pizza. It wasn't as good as cinnamon rolls or brownies (or any breakfast item, for that matter), but it hit the spot. At that point, though, it seemed that everything sorta caught up with me, and I fell asleep on the sofa.

After I woke up, I spent the rest of the day doing bookkeeping, laundry, and other random chores. I'm sorry I can't come up with anything more interesting to talk about, but the boring fact is that I watched some TV, finished the book I was reading, and went to bed early. Pretty dull. Tomorrow, I get to compose an email to send to the swim team about OUR upcoming swim meet and potluck event. I'll bet you can guess what sorts of food I'm going to request that they bring. Mmmmm.

Here's an idea -- How 'bout we invite all the Foothills kids to come to the pool and watch us eat while they do their workout. It's only fair, right?

On second thought...nah. I couldn't be that cruel.