Unforgettable

There is usually one or two things that I forget on my way to the gym in the morning.

I plan ahead by packing my bag the night before, thinking about what I'll be doing there and each step of getting ready for work in the cold, somewhat sterilized environment of the women's locker room at my local Y. I think about how cold it will be on the way there, my goggles and cap, and whether or not I'll want to wear jewelry during the work day. I try to remember the round brush for my hair and deodorant for my coworkers' sakes.

And, of course, I always forget something. Frankly, it's usually two things. Not three...just two. Sometimes it's really important (e.g., skivvies...let me tell you...INconvenient to say the least!) and sometimes forgettable (perfume).

Today was my first day back to pre-dawn swimming and -- although I spent my usual preplanned walk-through last night -- I forgot two things. Today, though, they were kinda funny.

First: my winter coat. You roll into the Y in darkness, you can get away with an over sized hooded sweatshirt over your suit. Hood up? Nobody cares. I don't think I even bothered to brush my hair. But it's the real challenge is to remember that it's just as cold when you leave afterwards as it was on the way in and somehow the sweatshirt does not translate over to the Ann Taylor skirt and sweater set. Still working on that one.

Second: how to count. Yup, today I forgot how to count. Laps, that is. I *know* that I warmed up with 200 breast stroke. That I know for sure. And I'm pretty confident that I correctly counted the first 200 free right...I think. But then things completely went awry. For some reason, when I'm counting my 775th meter, I realized that I was counting wrong.

Oops.

Sometimes I have stupid for lunch. Today, I apparently had it for breakfast.

The good news is that rather than having done 800 free, I probably did more like 1400. Because for some reason I was convinced that each lap was 25...rather than each length.

You know...it did seem like a long set.