HTFU

By the time I was finally standing in line to board my flight back home from Oakland this afternoon, I was tired and annoyed.  I was tired because I raced yesterday and then had to get up this morning at 5:00 to catch the flight north.  I was annoyed because generally speaking, airports annoy me.  Add this to the fact that I had just endured 2 people in front of me in the gift shop line who insisted on paying for their purchases in exact change.  I've always felt that paying with exact change always takes longer than the generally accepted cash register time allowance per customer.  In fact, it's almost as bad as people who still write checks at the supermarket.  Plus, both of them were digging deep and counting out pennies and nickels.  I always pay with bills.  The change goes to Ian - Stanford is expensive.

While waiting for the gate agent to call for passengers with "B" boarding passes (that's Southwest Airlines code for a best case window or aisle seat in the back of the plane), my iPhone beeped.  It was an email from XLMIC asking if I was going to be posting a Metrosexual Triathlete Tip Of The Week tonight.  I emailed back saying no, probably not.  In fact, I was most likely going to blow off my swim workout and just go home instead.  I was tired.  And I was annoyed.

When I got to my seat, my iPhone beeped again.  It was another email from XLMIC which simply read:

"HTFU"

I sat down and right away started feeling guilty.  She was right - there was NO REASON that the Metrosexual Triathlete Tip Of The Week post should be delayed.  So I decided right then and there to man up, get home and write the post.  As the plane taxied to the runway, I closed my eyes to take a nap.  I was going to need some rest if I was going to write the post.  But as I was drifting off to sleep, it occurred to me that XLMIC might have been referring to the swim.

When we landed, I got off the plane and made straight for my car.  When I got to the freeway, I headed south towards the gym instead of north towards home.  I was going to get that swim in.

It turns out that swimming was a good call.  The gym near the airport has a better pool than the gym near my house.  What makes it better?  No one ever uses it - I had a lane to myself the entire time.

The workout:

800 free warm-up
400 w/ paddles and pull buoy
4 x 50 over/under
200 kick
900 pyramid; 1-2-3-2-1 on :20

Though I like the sentiment, I must admit that I am not a fan of the term "HTFU".  This is because it's got too much of a "tough guy/mixed martial arts" vibe for my taste.  Don't get me wrong, I most definitely have the mouth of a trucker.  But I like my cussin' to have a certain refined irony attached to it.  And I'm quite sure that the original framers of the term "HTFU" were not the ironic types.

But you take what you can get, and I needed a good HTFU shoved in my face this evening.  Thanks XLMIC for getting my butt to the pool.