Day Twenty - OUCH!

Got to the indoor pool at 7:15 this morning for 84 laps. That works out to just over 2.5 kilometers. Gail, the early bird swim lifeguard, said that the pool will be closed from June 26 to July 11 (the days *after* the triathlon), but that we could use our memberships at the UNB pool.

She said things were a little different at the campus pool. That's where they have the FAST (whatever that means) program for competitive swimmers, the folks who go into national and international events. Apparently, if you're going too slow, they just swim right over top of you.

I think I'll just wander down to the outdoor pool below where I work and do the afternoon lap swim. If the sun ever shines here again, I just might get a chance to work on my tan after swimming laps.

After work, my daughter and I chomped down a Mexican pizza and she took off to study for her final exams while I went out for a fast 10 K bike ride under the sulking gray skies of New Brunswick.

It was a good ride. My legs are starting to build up for biking again, and I didn't die once. On the last stretch, though, a nasty thing happened.

It was a long level stretch and I was flying (or flying as much as possible on a mountain bike) when I heard buzzing behind me followed by a sharp pain in my back. I'd sucked a wasp into the arm of my training top and it was trapped and really pissed off. I started swatting at my back and almost lost control of the bike, which would have been a lot worse than bee stings at the speed I was going. A wave of cool sanity washed over my brain and I let the damn bug sting away while I brought the bike to skidding stop.

I tried to tear my top off but it would go over the helmet. The whole time, I could hear the wasp buzzing loudly somewhere in the folds of the top. I tore my helmet off along with the top and somewhere in there the wasp got away.

When I got home, I got Cass to put some bug bite soother on the stings and my back is starting to cool down. I know there's some high lesson in all this, but I think I'll focus for the lower lesson unti the pain in my back stops completely: I hate wasps. OK, maybe not so much a lesson as a realization. The next time I see one, I'm going to bite the damned thing.