Separated by a Few Degrees

Yesterday my morning meetings ran over - because I was trying to fit in 3 things before 9 am I figured I'd miss my 9:15 weights class and packed my gym back to swim. I've got another private lesson today and wanted to practice my drills.

Got to the gym around 9:30 and was frustrated to find a water aerobics class had just started. I stomped and fumed in the gym lobby, got info from the manager that if I could make it back later I could sneak in my swim drills before the 5:30 water aerobics class started, and went back to work with a plan to keep the rest of my meetings on schedule so I could pull it off.

(Let me just point out I was quite proud of myself for going back to the gym to force myself to get in a workout on a day that was absolutely insane with work stuff.)

I made it into the water by 4:45 and got straight into it. By 5:15 there were half a dozen women sitting around staring at me in a "what is this strange thing she is doing?!" kind of way. I had just enough time to squeeze in my last 15 laps but I decided to cut it a little short because I figured they'd want a few minutes in the water to warm up before their class.

By 5:20 there were about a dozen women standing around the pool, looking at me like they couldn't believe I was still there. I was alone in the damn pool, it's not like they couldn't have been in the other 3/4 of it warming up.

By 5:25 there were nearly 20 women, really glaring at me, a few brave enough to venture down the steps but not leaving the wall. I finished up my last cool-down lap and tried to get out, but they bottle-necked the stairs and forced me to wait. To a person they stopped in the middle of the steps, bitching and moaning that the water was "cold" and "freezing" and acting like they'd just been pushed into Lake Michigan in May. The water was atually in the low-mid 80s and I'd just enjoyed the most comfortable workout I'd ever had.

Though there are many issues, this is my biggest bitch about our pool - the water is always waaaay too hot. It's regularly around 90 degrees or more - I often feel hot and flushed and short of breath from even a moderate effort. I finally lost my patience and said something to the effect of the water being perfect for anyone who actually wants to swim and then I left.

This workout was great - I felt faster and more confident and graceful than ever before. But these ladies made me feel like I was wrong to be there and seemed angry that I was happy with the water temperature - like it was my fault.

I happen to know that the gym staff goes nuts because they're always getting bitched at no matter what - the aerobics classes complain the water's too cold and the swimmers complain the water's too warm.

What I don't get is that I felt an almost hostile vibe from some of them. I mean, usually women are extremely supportive of each other no matter what form of exercise they choose, but these women seem to be prejudiced against anyone who uses "their" pool for any other purpose. Their attitude certainly made me regret cutting my own workout short to be polite to them when they were anything but to me.