Pants on the ground

Earlier this week I had an early morning swim technique session.  By ‘early morning’, I mean 6:30AM – or as soon as the pool opened to non-high school swimmers.  Which for me…is dang early.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m not an early morning type of person.

At approximately 6:20AM my alarm caught my attention.  This would be about 20 minutes after I had hit the snooze button (in theory once, but apparently twice).  I now had ten minutes to get to the pool (a 10 minute drive away), and change, before getting into the water by 6:30AM.  Riiiiight.

I departed the house in record time – with all clothing on – and quickly made it to the facility by about 6:31, pretty solid actually.  By time I parked, walked across the parking lot, got my access card swiped and got down into the locker room, it was about 6:34.  I felt bad about being late – when I walked into the building I could see Coach sitting on the side of the pool waiting like a lonely kid.

I quickly changed in the locker room in record time and got right out onto the pool deck.

The technique session went how it always does, with plenty of back and forth down the lane, stopping and starting, fixing the myriad of things I do wrong.  About 90 or so minutes later, we were finished and headed back into the locker room.

As I walked towards the locker I noticed a pair of jeans on the bench.  Interesting I thought, but didn’t think any more about it as I got into my locker.

A moment later I realized those bench-ridden almost on the ground pants…would be my jeans, as I determined they were most certainly not in the locker.

Hmm…ok, I guess I was somehow in such a rush earlier and forgot them on the bench.  Good deal, they were still there waiting for me. How nice of the jeans. 🙂

After putting them on I noticed my cell phone wasn’t in my pocket.

…then I realized I had left it in the car so it would continue to get e-mails and texts while I was swimming (the concrete locker room blocks that).  Ok, all still good!

A moment laterI realized I didn’t have anything else in my pockets.  The usual other two pocket occupying suspects would be my keys and my wallet.

…then I figured I must have stashed them in my swim bag, which I sometimes do.

Except…I didn’t.  And my swim bag is pretty sparse, so it didn’t take long to cover that ground.  I checked the rest of my locker (tiny), with nothing but a wet towel to be found.

…well, this sucks.  A lot.

It’s one thing to have your wallet stolen, but to have your keys stolen too is a whole different ball game.  That elevates you into Grand Theft Auto, which is a bit different than a few dollars in my wallet (which rarely has much cash – let alone US cash – anyways).  Plus, who on earth steals stuff at 6AM anyways?

I relay my concern for lack of critical-path items to Coach, who simply decides that I had managed to just forget everything in the car (keys, wallet…and cell). I admit, at this point the morning was a bit foggy, so it was certainly plausible.

I quickly bailed out of the locker room and upstairs past the front desk.  They kinda looked at me funny, and I kinda looked at them funny.  Sorta a ‘Umm…one second…I’m busy’, with them looking at me like they knew me.  And then I continued towards the front to see if Mr. Car was still gracing the parking lot with his presence.

…and thankfully, Mr. Car was.

As I turned around, the staff kinda slyly looked at me…and slowly held up my wallet and keys.

Wallet! Keys! How I love you so!  I’ll never leave you behind again!  I promise.  Pinky swear.

___________

In other entirely random news…

Remember all those spiffy speed suits that you saw the pro’s using in Beijing at the Olympics?  Well, over the past year there’s been a lot of debate – and some of those suites have been banned in competitions.  Now Finis (one of the manufactures out there) is offloading some of the suits that are no longer permitted in certain competitions. I noticed on their Twitter feed yesterday this little sale – $20.  Yes, some suits are $150…and they’re just clearing them out for $20.  Kinda funny.  But if that’s up your alley, there ya go!

One place where you won’t see this suit – or any wetsuits, is at tomorrow’s Polar Bear Plunge that I’ll be at.  We’re about half-way there to raising a small amount to benefit the Special Olympics program, so if a few more folks donate a couple of bucks – we’ll easily nail it.  Here’s the deets on it here.  It only takes a second, and it benefits a great cause!

Finally – one last item…a big one.  Remember in late December the competition for The Best Endurance Sports Blog?  Well, as you know I was nominated to the Top 10 blogs…but with all your votes in late December while I was travelling – I made the Top 3!   You got me on the podium (for the second year in a row)! I never got a chance to post about it, but just wanted to say a huge thanks for all your votes!  You all rock!

Yesterday, the prize arrived at my doorstep – a Timex Ironman watch.

IMG_1948

Thanks again everyone, and have a great weekend!

P.S. – If anybody knows of any specific locations in the greater Washington DC area that can do body fat hydrostatic testing (dunk tank for body fat testing), I’d appreciate the contact info (via e-mail is all cool).  I’m looking into doing a post on comparing them with scales…

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14 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    Check with your local college. Most universities with an exercise science department will dunk you for some dollars.

  2. Phew, I had moments like this and thanked fate for being so kind while teaching me to be more mindful 🙂

    Good luck at the polar dip!

  3. Good luck at the Polar Bear!

    Re: Body fat testing, have you checked out the Bod Pod? It’s a similar process to hydrostatic except it measures displaced air vs water. Supposed to be very accurate, but I won’t know until after my appt.

    You can find facilities that have their equipment (usually hospitals and universities) here:
    link to lifemeasurement.com

  4. Every single time I leave my stuff behind in the changing rooms I have that pang of fear that it might not be there when I come back.

    I’m glad you got away with a “warning”.

  5. I’m glad the desk had your wallet and keys – that would have been awful. Whew!

    Have fun being (like) a Polar Bear tomorrow!! 🙂

  6. Re: Chris’ comment:

    CycleLife USA in Georgetown has a bod pod, as well as machines to calculate your resting metabolic rate, lactic/anaerobic threshold, anaerobic capacity, metabolic efficiency and VO2 max.

    And if you go, their smoothies are AMAZING!

  7. Jen

    OMGosh! Thank God that your stuff didn’t get stolen.

  8. Which doctor?

    You’re doing better than the MD at my gym. She put up signs around the locker room asking people to “have a ♥” and return her stolen black Coach wallet…which contained her *medical license*, her kids’ info, and the other usual stuff. What the…?

    I went to ask the staff at the front desk whether someone was actually breaking into lockers, or if Doc had just thrown all her stuff into an unlocked locker. Of course, it was the latter.

    Folks, please don’t ever leave valuables unsecured at a gym. If you accidentally find yourself without a padlock, most places will hold your wallet or purse at the front desk. You don’t need high scores on your MCATs to figure that out.

    P.S. The rest of us hate having to open locker after locker in a gym while looking for a space, only to find your unsecured stuff in it. Please consider that our time might actually be as valuable as yours. Thanks.

  9. Thanks all for the suggestions thus far on finding places, appreciate any others as well, as always!

    As for my jeans (referring to the last comment) – just to be clear, they were accidentally left outside my secured locker on the bench. Never noticed in my rush to get out that they didn’t make it in there…

    Thanks for dropping by everyone!

  10. The grumpy commenter

    DCR, I know you left your pants almost on the ground completely by accident — sorry to not be clear, it wasn’t meant at all as a knock on you.

    Maybe it’s just more common in women’s locker rooms than in men’s, but some days it seems like half the occupied lockers in my gym are completely unsecured. I’ve seen purses, wallets, electronics, all kinds of stuff. The signs in my gym had the word “STOLEN” in all caps and double-underlined, when in fact “free-range” might have been more appropriate.

    I guess my point was that when someone’s in a hurry, like you were in the morning, it’s all the more likely to make a pants-on-the-ground mistake when you have to spend a lot of time opening and closing locker doors in search of a space. People who always use padlocks, like you and me, do both themselves and others a big favor.

  11. JF

    The only thing I have ever had stolen out of a locker room was a lock, which made no sense to me. It is worthless without the combination right??

  12. Are the speedsuits usat legal?

  13. I lose stuff with more regularity than I should. Of course, I always first assume someone stole it 🙂

  14. thanks for the suit tip! just picked one up!