Hot Tub... ohh how I love thee!

I had taken recently to my new message board, inquiring about lower back and upper gluteal pain and how to get rid of it. Some recommended foam rollers (yeah, with limited upper body strength, rolling myself on a foam roller would be laughable, at best) others recommended a device called "The Stick" looks promising, but with less than 3 weeks til Tri day...it most likely will not arrive in time. Others suggested taking a warm bath. Well, my bathtub in my house is from circa 1984 when my house was built, it is not the most comfortable place to sit in. One day, the bathroom will be renovated and I can get one of those nifty tubs with all the jets and stuff. But for now, the warm bath was pretty much not an option either, until a lightbulb went on while I was swimming this morning. Lifetime, on the pool deck, has these two ginormous twenty person hot tubs...two of them.

And, after some lane drama this morning: I came onto the pool deck, dropped my stuff in the "waiting area" went to fill up my water bottle and came back to the waiting area, before I could sit down a lady signaled to me and asked me if I wanted to join her lane. I got up and headed to her lane when an angry man sitting in the hot tub started screaming about how unfair it was and he had been waiting for ever for a lane. Umm- then what the hell are you doing in the hot tub? People wait in the waiting area pinhead. So whatever drama ensued, the woman who was going to share with the guy in the next lane, stayed in my lane and the guy shared with the angry hot tub man. The woman ended up finishing in four or five laps, and the poor guy was stuck with angry hot tub man for another thirty or so minutes. Angry Hot Tub man, did stop me mid pass to apologize and tell me "it wasn't me" and that he was having a bad morning, but still- Hot Tub Man, you are a tool. But as I was swimming away lamenting over the fool, I thought "What is doing in the hot tub before a swim anyhow.. you're supposed to use it.. *LIGHTBULB!!!!!!* after the workout....

Which is exactly what I did, and it was heaven! I mean I've sat in a hot tub before but it was more of a social thing and not really using it for what it is intended for... and holy cow, now I understand the draw. When I have gotten into a hot tub before it has always been way too hot for my liking, but after a workout when your body temperature is already fairly high, it doesn't really feel hot at all, it feels great. And all of those jets in the hot tubs hit right in the areas that are most sore (calves, lower back, upper back). I had avoided the hot tub before because there are all these horror stories of staph infections and just general grodiness, but I think that I am a hot tub convert. It was ten minutes of pure relief.

Have a great day y'all

~Millie