Hello and welcome to my blog! :)

I guess a little introduction is in order. I decided to keep a blog about my training, workouts, nutrition, etc. So here I am.

A little about me:

I'm 27 years old, a NE Ohio native and I currently live in Cleveland Heights. I share my apartment with my crazy, but super lovable cat Morris. I did both my undergrad and grad in Buffalo, NY (Canisius College and SUNY Buffalo, respectively) and just moved back to Cleveland in 2005. Which is much longer ago than it feels.

My degree, well grad, is in Urban Planning. I currently work for an environmental firm and do some consulting and web design as well.

I have always been pretty active; I have been a swimmer, not competitively, since I could walk and I did diving for a few years. I played tennis in high school but sadly haven't been at it in a while. When I lived in Buffalo, I pretty much biked everywhere.

So what brought me to triathlon??? Well, I have been working out with a personal trainer, Alexis, (No you can't have her number, I'm not sharing. ;) jk, well only a little!) and as I began to reach some of my fitness goals, I thought I should make some long range ones and triathlon presented the perfect opportunity. So that pretty much brings you to present day.

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So today I swam after work. Let me just warn you that there is a bit of a rant coming. *sigh* So I don't think that pool etiquette is really any different from real life manners. Here is the deal. I left work a little early, I had to go to the bank and run errands after my swim so I thought leaving early would be a great idea. Weeellllll, I got to Bally's at five to five. I thought for sure I was beating the rush. So I head towards the pool and don't see anyone.....yet. Not only are all the lanes full but there are other people waiting too. So much for my big plan! :)

Anyway, there are two serious swimmers and then a guy in the short lane chatting with a lady in the second lane. She was doing some improvised side doggy paddle thing so not to get her face wet. Whatever, not judging, just saying. ;) Chatting man leaves around 4:57pm and I look at the other waiting swimmer. The other guy that was waiting is sleeping on a recliner and I tried to wake him up, ok maybe not that hard, but I said excuse me a few times. So I got into the short lane, with the stairs. As I turn on my HRM, the lady says that she will be done in two minutes. So I do a leisurely backstroke waiting for her departure. I'm on my second lap, returning and I see the sleeping guy in my lane. I guess I couldn't be too upset, after all, I didn't wake him up or anything. So I just suck it up and stand next to the rope and start my swim.

About five minutes in, I see a woman step into the pool. In the lane I am clearly swimming in. When I got back, I kind of looked at her like she had arms growing out of her head and she just politely smiles and says hello. I look at her incredulously and say, "Are you going to be swimming laps?" She says, "What?" I'm like, "I'm doing laps in this lane. All the lanes are full." She just kind of looks at me and then sees serious swimmer in lane four is out of the pool doing push ups. So she is like, "Well he is done." And I say, "No he is still using the lane." At this point my heart rate is going down despite my attitude; so I just say suck it up and swim. She actually didn't do too much except bob around and practice her kicks so it really wasn't any bother.

5:10 pm - On my return, I see a man wading into the pool. Which in itself isn't out of the ordinary, except none of the other swimmers had exited. I just kept swimming. In my head I was completely bitching and couldn't believe what was going on, but I kept swimming. I see him talking to my 'lane partner.' She gives him the go ahead to swim. He wasn't too bad. Slow breaststroke on the rope and I stuck to the wall.

5:15pm - Swimming man exits the pool. I seriously heard half of a choir sing.

5:20pm - I get to the end of the lane and I'm catching my breath and this guy enters behind me and in a heavy accent I hear, "Well hello!" Without turning around, I say, "Hello! I'm swimming!" and with that I push off and continue. I'm still practically attached to the wall and on my return I see as I'm breathing that he is swimming directly towards me. I'm like he'll move. Closer, oh he'll move, then closer until I almost run into to him. I'm like WTF!!! I stop mid stroke so I don't run into him. I start up again, which isn't fun at all, and finish the lap.

5:22pm - I look at my watch and am disappointed that I still have 8 minutes left. I'm ready to kill someone because all I wanted to do was swim for 30 mins. At this point, I have given up. I see that there are 5 people waiting and suddenly get a chill thinking that at some point they might all be my lane partners. So I exit the pool and go shower.

Basically, it seems like common sense to me that when you see someone swimming in a lane, not even swimming, but occupying a lane, that it is taken. And whatever happened to the rule about asking to share??? Seems like a whole lot of people missed the memo. Ok so only 3 people missed it but I was still disappointed.