crampy swim

I swam down the lane tonight, kicked off the far wall, and my left leg turned into a stick. It wouldn’t move.

Tighten every muscle in your left leg as hard as you can and then try to swim with it that way and you’ll have some idea of where I was at. Sort of like trying to sing with a mouth full of chili.

Or ride a bike with a flat tire. Looking at you, George Hincapie.

Now, granted, this was after about an hour of swimming at moderate to fast pace (for me) because I was trying to shoehorn the entire 2900m “A” workout into the hour our tri club gets at the pool, but still. I’d hoped those cramps were a thing of the past.

I’ve heard anecdotal tales of people doing shots of pickle juice to combat cramps. I might give that a swing. I like pickles!

When my whole body cramps up and I sink to the bottom of the pool like a retarded seal pup, necessitating a rescue by a Georgia Tech aquatic center lifeguard, he or she will get to resuscitate me with the pleasing taste of pickles on my breath.

You’re welcome, lifeguards!

I didn’t end up making it. I did the 300 warm up, the 4x50m 25kick/25drills, the 3x 500m moderates, and the 2x 200m swims, but that took me about an hour and my leg mutinied. So I got out and hobbled around a while.

On my way into the locker room a dude with a huge beard came out. I wondered if it was anything like swimming with a cat on your face.