I returned to swimming at the gym last week; “winter pool” as I call it.
While the weather is still unexpectedly too warm for this time of year, my own pool has gotten a bit too cool for me so last week I began to make the trek to the gym to swim.
It means a change in routine which isn’t a bad thing; it’s just that- a change in routine. The first few days are always the hardest because I’m not just walking out the back door with the dogs but instead gathering up things I need and hoping I get my lane one in the sun.
But as I walked down the back hallway that leads to the outdoor pool, it was like I hadn’t been gone at all. Over the next few days people greeted me, told me they were glad I was back, and I felt myself settling back into the “winter pool routine.”
Obviously, my pool at home is much shorter and colder so the workout itself is different. My goal at home is to tolerate the colder water and not push off the sides of the pool (keeping myself buoyant without help the entire duration). At the gym it’s longer laps for a longer swim.
It takes a few days of physical adjustment and then on Friday morning the mental adjustment kicked in as well. I felt I was in a good enough physical place that my mind could start to wander, using that time to work out details about my writing, sewing, Chelle Summer. I’d been planning out my latest Chelle Summer newsletter in my head and there was an answer I needed. Several other ideas came to me, too.
Now I was really back into the winter swimming routine.