An Early Morning Swim

After a whirlwind three weeks of book signings, workshops and events, I woke up this morning thinking I didn't have to do anything but work on writing my new book.

But that wasn't completely true. I did have to do one thing - homework for a swim class. An hour of physical activity of my choice. It did not have to be swimming, but I decided yesterday that since I'd signed up for this swimming class to become a better swimmer, it made sense to actually swim rather than do another activity.

So, on my drive to the pool, the car is cutting through dense fog and I'm wondering if maybe I should have chosen another activity. But I keep driving. My plan is to work on being able to breathe from my left side without swallowing a mouthful of water each time. I've gotten pretty good at breathing to the right, but can't seem to turn my head far enough to the left to both breathe and swim.

When I get there, only one other person is crazy enough to be in the pool. Steam is coming off the surface of the water. Two twenty-year old lifeguards are sitting at their posts covered up in hoodies, working on their laptop.

I jump in the pool and start swimming, thinking this is actually pretty great, because the water is warm and I have a whole lane to myself. Normally, in class I have to share the lane with 5 or 6 other people. I make to the other side - 25 meters, and like always, I'm out of breath. So I rest for a couple of minutes and watch the other woman swim back and forth. I take off again and make it across the pool. Again, I rest. She swims. I continue to do this for about thirty minutes before I notice that this woman who is smoking me is pregnant. I'm impressed. But I notice that the life guards are gone. I'm not sure where they went, but I have this horrible thought about the pregnant woman. Is she supposed to get this much exercise? What if she suddenly goes into labor and the life guards are gone? Would I know what to do? Yes, run into the locker room, grab my phone and call 911.

Well, she didn't go into labor thank goodness, or this would be a different kind of blog tonight. Everything went smoothly and I finished my hour of swimming. Then went into the empty locker room, took a shower and went on to do my Thanksgiving shopping.

Is there a point to this blog? Not really, though I do want to say that it feels really great to follow through on plans to make heathy choices in life. It would have been easy to turn around and return home when I saw all that fog. Or to simply choose another activity or none at all. But the rest of the day has flowed great, thanks to this cold workout this morning.

Here's to making healthy choices as we prepare for Thanksgiving!!

Julia