Alternative title: Complaining about distances like an European. 😉
There is so much going on these days, I don’t even know where to start.
#KingSnailRace may be on pause for now, but the PhD is not. And my attempt to build a website so y’all can read my stories with a little less hassle is chomping down on my time with more gusto than Cookie Monster on the baked goodies in his local grocery store. I don’t even want to get into the thicket that is the book publishing process – and then there’s training, which I have been neglecting hard. If regular desk work were an ocean, I’d barely be able to keep my head above the water.
Which is ironic, as I’m starting to eye the upcoming week for my first attempt at some proper swimpacking. And here I am, not swimming.
“Pleeeease tell me going to the pool is easy(ish). I just looked at what I’d have to cycle today to get my swim training, and I am PISSED. 30K round-trip, minimum.” I don’t know about you, but if getting to my training location takes longer than the actual training, I don’t wanna.
Mario, my swimming partner pre-pandemic, texts back almost instantly. “SOMEONE managed to not get their preferred slot for today and also forgot two (2!) meetings… so there’s that 😀 I’mma try again tomorrow.” Even though the message doesn’t contain the information I was hoping for, it does make me smile. You know those rare gems of people you meet – perhaps randomly at a bus stop, or at an acquaintance’s party (pre-Covid) – exchange a flurry of words with and then decide to keep in your life forever, because you and them just click?
Mario is one of those gems to me.
“Also, that is a lot more cycling training than swimming – and quite a gamble with the clothes,” he adds. I grimace.
“I’ve been trying to earlybird it, but cycling there at 6AM for just an hour of swimming something I have failed to motivate myself for so far,” I text back.
I sigh, and put my phone away.
There is so much going on these days.
But open-water swim training in Berlin is the best chance at training that I’ve got.