The Unplanned Day Off

4:30 am. I don’t need to get up this early today because I only have a 1500 yd swim and 3 mile run on the schedule. My body’s internal alarm apparently didn’t get this message and I’m wide awake. I’m not excited about getting up though and it doesn’t help that Steve is still in bed and isn’t showing any signs of getting up. 5 am. “Steve, are you going to the gym?” “No”, rolls over and pulls the covers over his head. Looks like I’m going to have to do this on my own. Out of bed and off to the gym. I pull my running clothes out of my gym bag and discover that in the dark, I grabbed the wrong bra. I stand in the locker room in my swim suit for 5 minutes contemplating the merits of running in the wrong bra. It was just the excuse I needed. I pack up the suit and running clothes and take a really long hot shower, appreciating the YMCA for paying for my indulgence. I had thoroughly rationalized and justified skipping my training this morning, but in all my rationalizing and excuse making, I forgot to take into account the “Locker Ladies”. Who are the “locker ladies”? They are the women who have a similar routine as I do, who use in the same locker row as mine, we make small talk about the weather, the pool temp and always wish each other a nice day. I know their routine as well as they know mine. Yes, we could exchange names, but somehow that never comes up. The teacher does the stairmaster first then swims then showers. She wears the same perfume I wore in 6th grade (Charley??) and has playground duty twice a month and has to cut her workouts a bit short. The German lady swims first, then showers and does weights downstairs. She’s in the pool by 5:10 and swims in lane one. As I’m drying off, the “locker ladies” come in. Now, you’ve read my last post about routines, so you’ll understand the locker ladies surprise when they saw me showered, changing and ready to go home so early. I wasn’t prepared to have to verbalize all my rationalizing with the locker ladies, but I was, quite literally, caught with my pants down. Since we’ve been locker row buddies for a while now, I felt I owed them the plain honest truth. “I just didn’t feel like swimming and running today, so I’m taking the day off”. As it turns out I didn’t have to justify, rationalize or even give one excuse; the locker ladies jumped in with words of support and encouragement “everyone needs a day off, your body needs a rest, take it easy today”. Feeling validated by the locker ladies, I left the gym, got a cup of coffee and went home, sat on the couch and read a book until it was time to go to work.