Swimming!

The pool is open!!!!

My gym has been open since June-ish but I have not been. I wrote about our home gym a few months ago. Honestly, it’s been great. We have a treadmill, kettlebells, weights, a weight bench and recently got a free elliptical. It was definitely a good option and I didn’t feel like I needed to go into the gym. I definitely did not feel comfortable going back!

I did feel bummed about not using the gym, which I’ve paid for. As each month of the pandemic went by and I wasn’t going to the gym, it became more and more of a bummer. I was not the type of person who paid for a gym membership and did not use it. 🙁

But most of all, I missed swimming. That was the one thing I could not “do at home.” Swimming is my favorite. It makes me happy. It relaxes me. It’s a good workout. It’s my “me” time. It’s meditative. I’ve been pretty depressed the last few months. And when I see people posting pictures from other parts of the country with their pools open (or outdoor pools open) I was definitely envious.

Well, my mom told me recently that the YMCA pool in Seattle opened. So I called my gym and the POOL WAS OPEN! Finally!!!! This was the one thing I was willing to do. I still don’t feel comfortable going into the gym right now, maybe in the future (we will see) but swimming was the one thing I was baffled that it wasn’t open. The chlorine in the pool kills everything. It made more sense to open pools BEFORE gyms, to me anyways.

So how does it work? You call and make a reservation. There are 3 lanes in my pool and one person per lane. You get a 30-45 minute slot (depending on if there are people waiting for the next slot). My slot was at 9:15 but I got there at 9 so I got 45 minutes.

I guess they close the gym every 2 hours to clean, so that’s good!

I took some vacation time Friday morning. Fridays are pretty slow for me at work. I got there at 9am and checked in (touch free, on your phone). You can use the lockers and the showers. I got in the pool. There were two other little old ladies in the pool with me, one swimming laps, one doing aerobics.

I was so nervous! I had some anxiety for a few days. First, I haven’t been swimming since March. The longest I’ve ever NOT swam in 15+ years. (I took like 10 weeks off postpartum and that’s it!). I was nervous about going to the gym, I was nervous about covid, I was worried I’d be out of shape, that swimming would be hard. I was also SUPER excited.

Swimming was amazing. It felt awesome to be back in the pool! Seriously, it was like I’d never stopped. I swam laps and I definitely felt fatigued. My arms, especially, felt tired and my muscles burned. But I felt really good. My time was basically what it was months ago.

I swam 40 minutes and did 1 mile.

I thought I would be sore the next day, but I wasn’t. I went again on Sunday–my old usual routine. It was so great! I saw my swimming buddy there. This older gentleman that I used to chat with before. We had the same Sunday swim routine. He seemed excited to see an old friendly face 🙂 and said he was glad I was safe and ok. We chatted for a bit, catching up. He said he’d missed the pool so much (me too!) and he’d been doing mostly Peloton this summer. I did not see the other two older ladies I usually saw on Sundays. I hope they are ok.

It was so good to be back in the pool!