Umm... Yeah.

Here's the situation:

(1) I'm away from home and in some strange land where triathletes are about as common as the mystical three-eyed Japanese squid-fish (which, unfortunately, I believe I stepped on during my first open-water swim earlier this year).

(2) I'm tapering for a marathon, so big workouts are out of the question. Oh yeah, that 26.2 mile fiasco will be crashing down on me in just over a week.

(3) I did a light run yesterday and found that my body apparently forgot to tell my legs that it's time they wake up from recovery mode from this past weekend's twenty miler. "Hello? Legs? Now would be a very good time to come around again!"

(4) My hotel's "pool" is about the size of luxury bathtub and only 3 feet deep on one end (which I suppose would be good for... Ummm... Right, nothing. Yes, a 3 foot deep pool is pretty much good for nothing).

(5) My trusty bike is back home, far away, tucked in and resting without me.

So what does a triathlete do? Well, a quick check of the hotel pool's deep end indicated that I had a whole 5 feet to play with. So. I practiced my flip turns for an hour.

They say you learn something new every day. Well, after doing flip turns (poorly) for an hour, I can tell you that there really isn't a more monotonous and dizzying (literally) routine you can spend your time doing. But, after some serious flipping and turning today, perhaps I might just be able to execute those acrobatics back in the tank when I get home a little bit better than before.

We'll see.