Das Vollkörper-Kondom; whatever floats your boat

This Wednesday i received my Vollkörper-Kondom (or wetsuit as it might be more commonly known) - which is just marvelous, i am very excited about it. I was so excited to try it out in fact that after doing a BRICK (another nonsensical acronym - i know everyone remembers the SKPS one - that helps the world by further pushing along misunderstandings and general confusion) which is a short version for (and I am still not a hundred percent sure about this) describing either the transition period during a triathlon, meaning from swimming to biking or biking to swimming, or the fact that your training will involve not only one event but two back to back with a quick transition (thus simulating, in a leisurely way, the actual race) .... so the point i am trying to make is this: i was excited about trying my full-body condom like flotation devise that even tough on wed. we did a BRICK (involving 23 miles of bike riding followed by a 1mile run) which was followed by an enjoyable trip to an italien place with some of the triathletes where we stayed till about 11pm, i decided to suddenly wake-up an hour before my alarm clock was set to go off the next morning - which was 5:30 am and decided -- ahh screw sleeping lets go swimming.

This is remarkable for two reasons: a this marked the first time i joined the 'early' or 'advanced' or 'snobby' swim group (i usually join the 40 to 80 year old swim group that starts an hour later where i stand out by still getting my butt kicked by said 40 to 80 year olds - but again - thats not the point ...) and b: since starting to practice it has been my goal to go the two sessions each week (always Tuesdays and Thursdays) but, shockingly, it never really happened before - on another side note: i did show up but off course i did not swim with the snobs (some might argue i could not - which is a fair point) and just did my own little practice

But yes - after doing something that some might, mercifully, call swimming for about an hour i pulled out my wetsuit to try it out and test it. Now this seems easy and straightforward, one would think, but well once thinks that about a lot of things and it somehow turns out to be a bit more complicated. Case in point: actually getting on a wet suit, while wet (one of the advanced swimmers later had this insightful tip: don't try putting on a wetsuit when wet ... and i cooly replied with my own 'schlagkraeftigen gegenargument' and said: 'ahhhhhhh' and struggled on. But yes after more then 5 and less then 10 minuets of pulling and figthing with myself and my new wet suit i managed to put it on .... and man these things are tight! Not in the 'uhh this is soo tight' aka cool meaning ... no just freakishly tight (but i am sure i looked unbelievable sexy in this thing - no question about it really ...)then came the big jumped into the water and i was floating - literally floating which instantly reminded me of the milky-way commercials they always ran in Germany (will try to find that and link to it - and the german/european milky-way is soooooooooo much better then shit they sell here in the USA - it so sad, i feel americans are deprived of any type of good chocolate/candy .. the chocolate selection/quality/variety - just like with cheese and yogurt's - is beyond horrible! I just wants to cry every time i am in a supermarket buying food) with their slogan which went something like "so much milk, so fluffy it floats in milk' (meaning the candy bar - and if i can just say - thats a horrible try at a) remembering that slogan and b) putting it into english ... but oh well - i figure one of our now 5(!) readers here will know what i mean ... the second - not so instant - thing that 'popped' into my head was that this feels like swimming in Lake Retba (somewhere near Dakar, Senegal) where i had been probably close to 18 years ago - its such a bizarre feeling (side note: swimming in just a wetsuit vs. doing so with scuba equipment is completely different feeling ... when u 'scuba' you never actually hit the water without all sorts of weights and heavy objects on you ...) and the actual swimming feels very strange ... u feel slow, but somehow move faster then if you would not wear this thing + it keeps you from freezing/drowning during the swim ...

so overall quite a positive experience this whole 'lets try out my wetsuit' thing ... and btw that thursday (yesterday) evening we pursued another BRICK - and this time it ended up being a 35miles (50km!!) ride - which was amazing with temps of 23 to 25 C - followed by a 2mile run ...

Es gibt nix schöneres ...

There is not much that beats running in great places ... its so relaxing, enjoyable, einfach nur geil - wie man so sagt. By 'great' place i mean stuff like along a beach, a nice forest trail etc. But since one usually does not have these things just outside the front door (especially living in cities around the globe) parks are probably the best alternative. And i have to admit i have fallen in love with running in Hyde Park (Holland Park is good as well but does not have that same flair) ... especially when (and this has happened surprisingly often) there is sunshine or anything close to resembling sunshine (which in england typically means any day during which it does not rain) ... and the park is so alive ... its just a perfect place to run. Btw what i was surprised to discover is how different Hyde Park is from Central Park .... from the lay-out/concept there both virtually the same - but they are nothing alike ... and what could be better for running that spring slowly emerging - no need to be covered in layers upon layers of running gear ...