Something's Missing

Long before Ironman became a distant hope, triathlon changed my life. Prior to triathlon, I was an afternoon trainer. I ran after work, often taking B-Boy with me in his jogging stroller. I swam after the sun came up, and biked after that. Except for truly long distances, Sunday's LSD runs were completed after church.

Then, triathlon entered the picture. Triathlon calls for swimming. And swimming requires a pool. (To cover the objections early, I know, California and Florida have nice, year round ocean swimming. Getting into Lake Winnebago from about December-March requires either scuba gear and a dry suit or a chain saw and a lobotomy.)

Suddenly, I was a morning trainer. Whether in the pool, on the bike, or on the road, most of my training moved to the pre-dawn darkness. It has its benefits. With most of my training completed before the sun comes up, I have more time in the evenings for B-Boy and Monster Girl. Mrs. Pol is able to do things outside the house, as I'm home to watch the kids. And those things that need to be accomplished actually get done.

There is, however, a down side. Training in the morning requires careful planning. Meals for work must be bagged and ready to go. Training clothes must be laid out the night before. And work clothes must be in the duffle bag, along with all the toiletries.

Herein lies the challenge. I've been known to leave important items at home. I forgot my underwear, which led to a change in training from run to swim, allowing me to wear my jogging shorts under my work clothes. I forgot my belt, resulting in a new belt being purchased no the way to the office. And I left my entire wardrobe hanging on the door at the house, requiring me to run all the way home and pick them up.

So, I've gotten good at laying everything out. Last night, everything was in place except blue jeans (casual day). A quick check of the laundry yielded not one but two pair of clean jeans from which to choose. Black Polo Ass'n carpenter jeans or dark blue regular jeans. As the Polo jeans have a small tear in one of the pockets, I choose the regular jeans.

And that, my friends, is where I went wrong. It wasn't until putting things in my locker at the gym that I realized my mistake. Yes, the black jeans may have had a tear in them. Yes, the blue jeans were nicer looking. Then again, my wife's jeans are sized and cut such that they aren't that flattering to my figure.

Yes, I once again managed to get to the gym without a crucial article of clothing. And sweatpants are a bit TOO casual. Given a swim scheduled for one hour, going home wasn't going to work. Oh well, that's why Wal-Mart is open 24 hours. So, after a good mile swim, I headed over and bought some new jeans. And since they had work khakis on clearance, I bought a pair of those, too.

One of these days, I'm going to figure out that something is missing BEFORE I head to the gym. Either that, or I'm going to seriously consider answering Mrs. Pol's question about how much an Endless Pool costs.