The light changed, we crossed NC 55, then shortly dismounted to cross the railroad tracks before Carpenter Upchurch Road. As we did, Stan and Jan Cox were crossing from the opposite direction. We struck up a conversation — the father/son tandem continued on — that continued a few days later with an email exchange. From those conversations I learned this about the couple that, had it not been for the dismounting disturbance of the railroad tracks (there is no crossing and concrete barricades actively discourage cyclists from hiking over the tracks), I would otherwise simply have passed with a wave and a hello.

• Both commute by bike to work, Jan as a teacher at Green Hope High School (which we happened to be across the street from), Stan to N.C. State’s Centennial Campus. Said Stan: “My commute is 11 miles one way and I cycle commute around 3 times a week.  Jan commutes 4 miles one way and she commutes around 2 times a week.  Commuting is my favorite riding because I feel like I’m accomplishing something and weekend riding is not what it was now that the roads west of Cary have become more and more crowded.  We are both fortunate in that we have routes that take us off main roads; not easy in this cul-de-sac road planning area.  I put a lot of thought into finding a good route.”
• About dealing with motorists: “Most drivers are courteous to me and I try to be courteous in return,” says Stan. “I never run lights, stay to the far right side of the lane.” Cyclists are common on Centennial Campus, so it tends to be more bike friendly. As for Jan, Stan says she sticks to the back roads. “She tries to avoid the high school drivers; I cannot say that I blame her!”
• On how they got into cycling: “I’ve ridden road bikes pretty much all my life but mostly just casual riding,” says Stan. “I started cycling more seriously to do triathlons. Jan got a road bike a few years ago figuring if I was going to go out cycling then she might as well join me!  It has been a nice hobby for the two of us.”
• On living a well-rounded active life: “My preferred sport is swimming; unfortunately I cannot swim to work. (Ever see the Burt Lancaster movie ‘The Swimmer’?) … “I do the FS Series swims.  Jan swims and runs so she can do an occasional triathlon.”
• On goals: “We also ride with an MS team that cycles year round,” says Stan. “This year we would like to ride double centuries — 100 miles on Saturday and Sunday, something we’ve never done before.  The MS ride is a different experience from the swimming/triathlon events I normally do as you aren’t racing a clock so it is more relaxed.”

After 10 minutes or so, our respective lures — mine of finishing up, the Cox’s of getting a ride in before the afternoon heat hit — ended our conversation.

The entry in my workout log book for May 31 reads “strong ride,” but I can’t recall what made it so (climbed the hills with ease? Smoked on the flats?). But I still remember my stoplight exchange with the father/son tandem — they get ice cream at McDonald’s — and my crossing paths with the Cox’s.

Good workout, better conversations.

Me? I dove into 15,000 gallons of ice water.

Technically, “ice water” may be pushing it. According to the duck, it was 65 degrees. To put that number in perspective, jump into the ocean during your summer beach vacation, then subtract 20 degrees. It’s a big difference, trust me.

Today was opening day for our backyard pool. As long as I can remember, I have dreamed of having a backyard pool. When we went house hunting a couple years back and found this place in Historic (mid-1970s) Cary with a backyard pool, it was a done deal. At age 51, I decided I was worthy of this perceived extravagance. My wife felt the same: “Give them whatever they want,” she told our Realtor when negotiations reached an impasse.

My reason for wanting a pool hasn’t changed over the years: Water offers the ultimate escape. As a chubby kid, I felt weightless in the pool. As an adult who expects a lot from his body, the pool provides welcome relief for my aging joints. As a kid in an occasionally chaotic household, I savored escaping under water at the neighborhood pool into a world of muffled quiet. As an adult, that same muffled world shields me from the incessant call of the cell phone, the chirping and beeping of email and text messages. As a kid, the water was my chance to escape and regroup. It’s even more so today.

The duck is smiling because it's out of the water.

The pool is the one place where I can make time stop. Or very nearly. From now through late-September, I will make a daily habit of going into the deep (8 feet) end and treading water for 20 minutes. I’m not a natural in the water; staying afloat takes some effort, an awkward collaboration between continuously kicking legs and figure-8ing arms to keep my head above water. Once I slip into that unconscious rhythm, I slip into a meditative reverie. It’s the one time I am assured of giving my brain time to do what it rarely gets to do: think. Really think — about whatever manages to bubble to the surface through the usual muck of day-to-day concerns: work, survival, oil spills. Sometimes my brain can get here on the bike, sometimes during a run. But it always happens during my 20 minutes in the deep end. Twenty minutes to think, 20 minutes of physical rehab: You can’t put a price on that.

Which I think about every time I pay the mortgage.

Grueling Triathlon of Doom? Such truth in advertising, I thought. Triathletes are well-conditioned not to view what they do as “grueling,” nor to entertain notions of “doom.” My mind raced; shortly, my fingers followed, on my own keyboard to see what this Grueling Triathlon of Doom was all about.

It is, I soon discovered, about triathlons for the antitriathlete.

“This is a beginners practice triathlon designed for nontraditional athletes, couch potatoes, under dogs, fathletes, hard workers, grownups or you,” proclaims the event’s home page. “If you’ve completed a triathlon, can swim a 500, run a half marathon, or own some aerobars this is not for you. If you think you might have a shot at winning this race then this race is not for you. This race is for the rest of us normal folks who think that, given enough time, and the right kind of environment, that we could probably finish a triathlon. (Maybe. If we worked really hard.)”

Navigating the post-race pot luck is about as grueling as its gets at the Grueling Triathlon of Doom.

It’s a triathlon, in short, about doing things you might enjoy — running, biking, swimming — in doses you would enjoy doing them: Five laps in the pool (as opposed to the 2.7-mile ocean swim required of an Ironman), a nice six-mile ride on the bike (not 112), a 1.5-mile run (not a marathon), just enough to get a good glow going but not enough to invite leg cramps, nausea, heat stroke or any of the other maladies associated with the last leg of a triathlon.

The Grueling Triathlon of Doom — which is June 6 at the Downtown Durham YMCA, fyi — is one of a growing number of events once reserved for hard bodies and folks with all the time in the world to train (meaning: no family, no social life, no fondness for the appetizer and desert menus). Triathlons, runs, bike rides — no longer do you have to have the intense resolve and commitment of a Dave Scott to pin a number-bearing bib on your chest.

Quick quiz to see how up you are on this trend: After a 100k training ride, how should you handle the “glycogen repletion window that follows four hours of vigorous exercise”? Would you “aim to drink or eat 3 grams of carbohydrate per kg of body weight,” probably in the form of some convoluted and none-too-tasty drink mix? Or would you have a giant ice cream sundae? If you were taking part in the 11-year-old Ice Cream Ride sponsored by the MSFITS Bike Club of the Triangle, you would be replenishing with Rocky Road slathered with Fluff,  hot fudge, nuts and a maraschino cherry. (This year’s ride is June 19 and requires riding through RTP, Durham and parts of Chatham County before handling the ice cream scoop.)

Maybe you’re divided on the issue. Maybe you like the notion of competition, you just don’t have the time or inclination to train for the front of the pack. Rides such as the 44-mile Poker Ride give just as much of a chance of winning to folks who ride a 12 mph pace as those who ride at 21. Ride the course, pick up three random playing cards along the way, best hand wins up to $300.

Foot races have excelled at embracing this inclusive policy. Take the Thin Mint Sprint May 22 in Charlotte: There’s no sugar-coating a race dedicated to arguably the most addictive cookie ev-er. Yes, there’s a 5k that may involve heavy sweating. But there’s also a 1-mile Fun Run/Walk as a carrot for everyone to get out and move in support of financial assistance programs for girls who can’t afford to join the Girl Scouts.

Quick warning: Don’t judge the intensity of a race by its name. The inaugural 3 Little Pigs Triathlon June 19 in Smithfield is a legit sprint tri. Porkers be advised that when the starting gun goes off at 8 a.m. you’ll be expected to swim 250 meters, bike 12 miles and run 5 kilometers (3.1 miles).

The good news: Such information isn’t tucked away in the fine print; you’ll know upfront what you’re getting into. The better news: There are all sorts of Ice Cream Rides, Thin Mint Sprints and Grueling Triathlons of Doom to give everyone a chance to see if they might be a runner, a biker or, yes, even a triathlete.

Your training begins by finding one at this extensive rundown of regional events at SportOften.com.

So I was surprised when I stopped to thank Malley for her support after Sunday’s 4th Bi-annual Splash, Spin & Sprint Indoor Triathlon at her response. “I just can’t imagine people going that far,” said Malley, who belongs to the UNC Wellness Center at Meadowmont where the event was held and had volunteered to help with the event.

I did 24 lengths in the swim, Scott, in the next lane over, did 44. The average was 30.

First, the SSSIT isn’t that long: You swim for 15 minutes, you ride a stationary bike for 15 minutes, you run a treadmill for 15 minutes. I should say that in theory it isn’t that long. Fifteen minutes in the pool? I can at least float. Do the stationary bike for a quarter of an hour? I do two-hour mountain bike rides. Run on a treadmill for 15 minutes? Please! Two problems with this theory.

One, because 15 minutes might seem like a drop in the bucket compared to your regular workout your inclination might be to do it fast, as fast as you can. Which might work for one event, but then you realize you have two left. (That approach is especially risky in the pool if you’re not a swimmer.) Three sprints back to back to back and you’ve had a workout.

And two, while 15 is a small number, 45 minutes (3 x 15) is about the length of a typical class at a fitness center. Imagine going full throttle for 45 minutes in your favorite fitness class. Which is what surprised me about Malley’s observation because she takes one of  the more arduous 45-minute (or longer) classes offered: a spin class. Spinning may not translate to the pool, but it’s 45 minutes of non-stop exertion none-the-less.

Lightheaded, I tried to peek over and see how Beth on the bike next to me was doing.

The winter indoor triathlon has been slow to catch on in these parts but flourishes in the Midwest. It’s a great concept, providing motivation to keep working out over the winter. It’s especially well-suited as a cross-training alternative for warm-weather outdoors athletes, from road cyclists to runners. Kathy DeBlasio, Meadowmont’s Lifestyle Enhancement Director, says the SSSIT was created for those reasons and to give the curious a sense of what a triathlon is about. The distances are comparable to those in a Sprint triathlon, which typically consists of a 500-meter swim, 12.4-mile bike ride, 3.1-mile run.

To further encourage the Kathy Malleys out there, here’s a look at who does indoor triathlons, with some numbers from the Meadowmont event:

By sex
Females: 22
Males: 10

By age
Teens: 1
20-29: 2
30-39: 6
40-49: 15
50-59: 7

Swim
Most lengths completed (25 yard pool): 44
Average: 30

A sprint to the finish.

Bike
Farthest distance: 9.08 miles
Average: 5.32 miles

Treadmill
Farthest distance: 2.33 miles
Average: 1.77 miles

Those numbers alone should should make Jill Malley think again about doing Meadowmont’s next indoor tri, scheduled for November (date tbd). And if she needs a little more motivation, let’s turn to the man who’s job it is to convince runners they can run 100 miles at 10,000 feet and mountain bikers that they can ride 100 miles at 10,000 feet, Ken Chlouber, founder of the Leadville 100s. At pre-race meetings before each event, Chlouber encourages the field to do the seemingly impossible with this statement: “You’re tougher than you think you are … and you can do more than you think you can.”

See you on the bike next to mine in November, Jill.