Swim and run disaster - Feb 27 2011

I am not wearing a swimming cap...

I have been staying at Pullman Putrajaya Hotel for the last few days as I was conducting training there. The Putrajaya Aquatic Center is next to the hotel so I decided to swim there today. That was a big mistake as it was chaotic. I am not really a champion swimmer (not yet anyway) but I've read a lot about pool etiquette. Everyone was swimming all over the place. Some were swimming lengths others were swimming the width of the 50m Olympic size pool. There was not such thing as lane management. I tried to get out of the way of the 'serious' swimmers and wished the non-serious ones would stay out of my way (I consider myself somewhere in between).

There was this one swimmer swimming beside me who was doing some serious laps across the pool. I was admiring his stroke when suddenly out of the nowhere a guy just appeared who was swimming the width of the pool and collided with the poor guy. There wasn't even so much as an apology or acknowledgement and the idiot just continued swimming.


Nobody was managing the pool. There was someone monitoring the pool but instead of putting order to chaos, this guy came up to me and asked me to take off my top. I told him that it was my training top. He just said that although the top was tight as per the rules, it has some words on it. The words were my usual 'LEARNER' embroidery that I put on all my training outfits. Things just went downhill from then on.

After about 30 mins of pain the pool just wasn't even inviting anymore. So we decided to go for a run instead.

THE RUN

Have to watch my form..  

The run didn't go as planned which was a shame as I was looking forward to running in Putrajaya with all its lakes and waterfront. I managed about 7km of running (with about a 1km walk in the middle). I know it's normal to walk during a run but I was a bit disappointed with myself for choosing to walk for a bit. No excuses other than I wasn't focussed on the run. I was still focussed on the swim disaster.

Big Learning: FOCUS on what you can control not on what has passed.

Tonight I decided to do some cross training on the elliptical training so I can end the day with a success. No matter how small the success is, it does matter, at least to me.....

Cheers






About Reza Ali

Reza Ali Reactivated tells of the journey of Reza Ali as he embarks on transforming himself from a 120kg (35kg overweight) 46 inch waist unhealthy and unfit person to someone who can compete in a triathlon. Don't be afraid to dream. Take action. Correct your mistakes. Learn from failures. Bit by bit, you will get closer to your dream.

If I Can Do It, So Can You.....

Come and support Reza by joining the Reza Ali Reactivated Fan Page on Facebook