A Pool Story

READER DISCRETION ADVISED: I may use some only-known-by-swimmer words... Sorry friends.

Yesterday I decided to go to the pool for the first time during the weekend during my stay in Madrid because I have too many times left on my 10-time pass for the pool/gym and it's one of the only weekends I've been in Madrid. I lifted first all by myself and with lots of cramps in my legs, but decided to do basically everything I could think of because I had nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon (everyone was working on their final papers and I was waiting to steal a computer from a friend so I could write mine, but she had to finish first). After lifting I headed down to the pool and did a 1500 warm up (that's long for those of you who don't know) full of swimming, kicking, and pulling because I decided I was going to swim for an hour and a half, something I haven't done since last winter, if I remember correctly. At some point during my warmup I realized that I wasn't in a lane with only slow people which is usually what I find in the 2 lanes that have big signs reading "PUBLIC: HIGH LEVEL"... basically no one in Spain can read or they can't swim, one or the other.
Anyway, so I was swimming and realized that there was an older-ish man (50 perhaps) that seemed pretty fast. After I finished my warmup I started doing some 200's building slow to fast by 50. After the first one I realized that this older man was waiting on the wall with me to leave again. Suddenly, in english, this man says, "you are very fast. can i follow?" so I replied, in spanish, "yes, i'm not really fast right now, but that's fine." we did some more 200s and he was on my tail the whole time... pretty impressive for someone used to swimming with really old, slow people who don't seem to have ever received a swimming lesson in their lives. After 4 200's fast, I decided to do one with the 50 in the middle fast and told him. He mentioned something to me about not understanding the language, at which point i was REALLY confused whether or not he could speak english OR spanish... still not sure... but he said he was just going to follow me. So we did another one fast and i told him i was pooped because i had lifted before and that was just SO MUCH more impressive, but he still wanted to follow me AND go fast. I convinced him to do a bit of drill and let him go before me to do breaststroke because i told him i am "really. really. slow" so he went. Afterwards, he still wanted to do things fast (SHEESH! old people these days! they just can't stop! I'm thinking i'll introduce this man to my mum) so we did 8 50s alternating who went first. when i went first, he was right on my heels and when he went first i was lagging.
so basically then i felt slow but he really wanted to do 8 and not 6 as i suggested so we did that and then swam "really soft" in his words. then he told me he had been a runner in the past but now he swims more and thinks that swimming is harder. it was a lovely experience AND my first workout where i was pushed and pushed myself in Espana! And by a middle-aged man that speaks some unknown language!
I'm tempted to bring him back to Carleton because let me tell you, the one time he touched my toes by accident when he was behind be during a 200, man did i push myself. there'll be no old spanish men beating my tushy this winter... perhaps some freshmen girls, but that's completely different.