Things My Father Has Taught Me

1. Kent Hrbek is a no good, dirty rotten jerk.
2. I should have been on the swim team.

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When I was a kid, the MN Twins made it to the World Series.  It was kind of a big deal.  And one day, while at the athletic club, who should stroll in, but Ken Hrbek, fresh off his world series win.  My dad sidled up to him at the salad bar, and sweetly asked him for an autograph -- for his son -- my brother, Marc, who couldn't have been more than 8 years old at the time.  Kent's response?

Sarcastically, "Could you wait until I finish my dinner?"

I'm sure that Kent is a very nice man, and in retrospect was just irritated about being bugged, post-workout, pre-meal, but COME ON!  You're a HERO.  An athlete.  In the public eye.  People worship you.  He asked for an autograph FOR HIS KID.  Get over yourself, you big jerk!

So the family joke, for years, became what a big huge jerk Hrbek was.

But today, I might be willing to forgive Mr. Hrbek because yesterday, The Hubs and I discovered the Bloomington Family Aquatic Center in Kent Hrbek park -- I guess he was a Bloomington resident, and donated a bunch of money to the city to build this whole outdoor park area.

Well I have to hand it to Mr. Hrbek because he knows how to build a pool.  I couldn't care less about the batting cages and baseball fields, but the pool is new and beautiful -- large waterslides, a zero-gravity entrance, and in the morning... lap lanes.  Outdoors. The Hubs and I went yesterday afternoon - I wasn't too enthused about the idea of being surrounded by splashing, screaming brats, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the pool was mostly empty.  It was a really beautiful facility.

So this morning, I scampered off to buy a family pass for us to use for the rest of the summer -- it is $9 for a day pass at the pool, and $50 for the whole season - so basically we have to use it a total of 5 times each for it to pay for itself.  They reimbursed us yesterday's admission when we bought the pass, so as of today The Hubs needs to go four more times and I need to go three.

And the reason I only need to go three more times is because this morning, I hit it up for lap swim!  Outdoors!  And it was BLISS!  It was crowded, and only one of the lanes was open for public lap swim (the other lanes were being used by the swim team), but I did a solid 30 minutes without stopping in that beautiful 50 meter pool -- for a total of 1000 meters -- and then relaxed in the sun for about 20 minutes before picking up Subway and heading home for lunch and a shower.

It was a pretty great way to spend one of my last mornings off, and I'm wishing I'd discovered it on Monday.

It is amazing how quickly it comes back, the athleticism. Just like the muscle memory associated with my flute and piano, the body just knows what motions to go through. 

When it comes to running, biking, and swimming, I am not fast.  I don't pretend to be, or even strive to be.  I go in with the goal of endurance and with feeling better when I'm done than when I started.  And today was a great reminder that I do have a bit of natural athleticism in my bones.  As per usual, I started out of the gate too fast; got my heart rate too high too quickly, but as soon as I slowed down and relaxed into a comfortable pace, I felt like I could have swam laps all day.

I'm just about to hit the shower, and my body is pleasantly sore, tired, and even a little tan.  The sun on my back felt amazing, and I can't wait to go and do it again tomorrow.  It made me think again about a mini-triathlon someday in my future -- after all, I swam 3/4 of a mile without prepping for it at all, and most tri's are only 1/2 mile swims.  I might not be running right now, but I'm sure I can bang out a 5K -- worst case scenario, I can walk one in under an hour, so I can probably interval one in 45 minutes.  And then the biking, which I haven't done since last summer, but I'm sure I can knock out 5 miles. 

Things to think about for sure...

Off and running,
~Jessica