Back to the pool

[jesse_the_k]

It’s been fifty-nine weeks and a day since I last swam. My pool has created elaborate routines to minimize infection: one-person per lane in 45 minutes blocks; entry at staggered 10-minutes intervals to minimize shared time in locker room. The pool is part of a cardiac rehab clinic, so they've been open to patients but not exercisers.

It’s delicious to be in the water, and I do remember my routines and my strokes.

Last March I’d achieved a 27-minute swim thrice weekly. I’m too impatient to limit myself as much as I should. I did 16 minutes today and then spent four hours just staring straight ahead. More, again on Thursday and Sunday!

How has your body program changed? Any recent signs of improving access?

Comments

[dhampyresa]

Pools here in France are only open for people with a medical reason to be there. For physical therapy reasons, I obtained a doctor's note recently! I am so so happy to get back into the water even if I can tell my body composition has changed from the difference in how I float and I can't swim as much as I want to (see above re pt).

[jesse_the_k]

Very sad that you qualified but thrilled that you had access to the magic elixir of life (water). Are your pools chlorinated? Some pools here use a "saline system" which introduces the chlorine to the water in a cabinet away from the water, so less bleach smell on the skin. My pool doesn't have it, of course.

My pool is part of a rehab clinic (cardiac/orthopedic) so on The Last Day I quizzed the staff re: any possibility that lap swimming could be permitted by doctor's note--and I was willing to get a psychiatrist to attest to the importance of water in my life. They shook their heads sadly.

/back from back reading your journal and I want to appreciate

MANATEES!

because that's how I feel when I'm in the water. On land I'm stumbly but I shine with the life aquatic.