You've GOT To Be Kidding

A quick review of my sidebar training stats shows a fairly busy year. Year to date, I've travelled more than 1400 miles under my own power. That includes three running races (10K, half marathon, full marathon) and three triathlons (short sprint, Olympic, longer sprint). It includes learning to swim, getting back onto the bike, speedwork to achieve my sub-4-hour marathon, and my inaugural triathlon season.

And it includes no injuries. There were occassional twinges that caused concern. Some heel pain even warranted a mention during my annual physical. But no physical malady resulted in lost or reduced training. It was a good year and race results improved as a result.

The race season over, I've been taking a couple weeks off from serious training, preparing for an off-season aimed at discipline specific improvement (can you say "swimming"). Saturday morning, I decided to go for a long, straight swim, something I haven't done for some time. In fact, I wanted to go at least 4000 yards.

That goal was totally destroyed by the YMCA, which decided that closing the pool (for 12 water aerobics students) right in the middle of morning lap swim was a good idea. Quite angry about the whole ordeal, I headed home and decided to put some of the energy to good use working in the nursery. B-Boy and Monster Girl have a lot of fun tearing the place apart, and I wanted to do some serious cleaning.

So, with the kids safely occupied in the living room, I got started. It was almost like a scene from Clean Sweep. Everything being moved out and reorganized, furniture being rearranged, and the room being thoroughly cleaned (including steam cleaning the carpets).

And somewhere in the process, my mother was proven wrong. Cleaning CAN kill you (well, at least hurt you). I'm not entirely sure how, but I walked into that room perfectly healthy. I limped out with a pulled hamstring. And my only thought was, "You've GOT to be kidding me." The irony of going an entire (and dare I say much more active) race season without injury only to get hurt doing housework is impossible to miss.

I will, however, accept it with grace. It couldn't have happened at a better time. I'm theoretically in a "no-training" period, with a two-week cross train period to follow. Serious off-season training won't start until October 24th, and that will have a heavy emphasis on swimming.

But watch out for those domestic tasks. Your mother's admonitions that a little housework never hurt anybody have just been proven wrong. Clean safe!