I went swimming yesterday in a pool for the first time since March 15th, so almost 4 months!!!! Swimming and I have always had a strange relationship. For some reason when I was young, I loved the water, but I loved to just doggie paddle and despite my father's multiple attempts to teach me at the club pool or at Council Bluff Lake, I did not want to learn. Looking back now, this was SUCH a beautiful lake in which to swim with a perfect sectioned off swimming area, ahhhhhhhhh, sorry Dad! I always loved jumping off the diving board and doing dives and flips, going down water slides, swimming under water, but it wasn't until 2006, so I was 28 years old when we were thrust in the triathlon world and I was forced to learn to lap swim. I couldn't make it down and back in the pool with even the slightest form of what looked like freestyle. My breathing was erratic and I was kicking like crazy! In 2007, we did our first Ironman in Wisconsin and obviously I did 2.4 miles of swimming to open the day and the lake was magnificent and I swam faster than I thought I would, although mid/late pack. Although I actually enjoyed the swim that day in September, I pretty much dreaded every swim training leading up to that, other than the fact that we would go to Panera after every swim to get soup! We did multiple short triathlons in between what ended up being 5 total Ironmans for me and even did what's horribly called the Ocean Marathon of 2.5 miles of a straight swim north along the beach in Jax Beach with very few swimmers and I cannot imagine how many other living things swimming with me. That was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, I had to talk myself out of thinking about all of those things swimming around me and just propel myself forward. We also did plenty of boating over the years, skiing, wakeboarding, sailing, jumping in the water to swim, sometimes just to pee like the pic above, ha! But it wasn't until my joints started aging, starting in about 2015, but not weekly until 2018, that I was loving actual lap swimming more and more. In 2017, I even went to aquatic therapy for my back and it helped so much! I swam a lot in the pool in Coronado Bay Club and when we moved to Imperial Beach, I did a weekly lap swim/aquatic therapy session in the pool with neighbors where I led some exercises with the water weights and kick board and I was actually getting a little tone in my arms!!! THEN we moved to Hawaii and spent 3 weeks at the Hale Koa and proud to say, I got a lot of swimming in there as well. Although we settled on a home without a pool here in Kaneohe, I was SOOOO excited that 2 miles away there was a District Pool with open lap swim with gorgeous views of the mountains and it was FREE!!!!! Free to shut down just in time for our move here. So, basically what I am saying here, is thanks a LOT Covid! I'm blaming my back pain on you, along with a lot of other more important world problems! I had been trying for the last 3 weeks since the pool reopened to get a lane but they all filled up in person and I had been calling, so I went in person last week to sign up for this week but all the spots were full. I was walking away when someone said there was a cancellation! Woooohoooo! So yesterday was my sign up time at 2 pm. We were coned off in line 6 feet away, had to wear masks until we got in the pool, 45 minute slots with 15 minute slots in between for them to clean and sanitize. I think it's a 50 meter pool, whatever it was, it was LONG, it felt like and Endless Pool at times! Did I mention that it's HOT here in Hawaii? So, that was awesome to finally be able to stay in the water that long for exercise with all my swimmer tools. My back felt amazing, my soul felt amazing, the water felt amazing. I will be back for more for sure and I am betting that as I age, I will be fitting more and more pool time into my schedule, as long as this Covid goes away!!!
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