Saturday, February 13, 2010

Lunch Swimming?

I’ve always discounted the idea of getting a swim in over lunch.  It is between a 10 and 15 minute walk from my office to the downtown YMCA.  By the time you walk there, swim, shower, walk back…well that winds up being a pretty long lunch!

I really wanted to make up Wednesday’s swim though.  With Finlay back home now it is really hard to leave the house early in the morning.  He needs to get up, go outside, eat breakfast, and then he needs a walk before I leave so that he can take care of everything before I leave him for the day.  Pretty tough to make that all happen and be at the Y for a 5:30 am swim.  These lunch and evening workouts are making more and more sense!!

I decided to try the lunch time swim thing on Friday since it was really the only way I could make it work.  I packed a swim bag in the morning.  I looked at my two swim caps but for some reason neither one made it into my bag.  Oops!  It felt so weird to swim without a cap!!  At first it felt kind of neat to have the water rushing past my head as I pushed off the wall.  Then I looked to the bottom of the pool.  I have bangs that are sort of semi-growing out.  Obviously they weren’t held back and they would get plastered to my goggles length after length.  A little annoying, but not bad enough to really impede my swim.

The workout was a good one that included a flipper set, some drills, some sprints, and some descending stroke count sets (which I was thoroughly unsuccessful at).  1850 metres and it was time to get out of the pool, hurry up and shower and get back to the office.  It did indeed wind up being kind of a long lunch break so I doubt I’ll make it a habit.  It was a nice way to break up the day though, and since it was so nice outside it was a really good walk to and from the Y.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

10 comments:

Lily on the Road said...

good job looking after Finlay, that is wonderful to hear.

Swimming at lunch is a great way to break up the day....

teacherwoman said...

Glad to hear you were able to get in a lunch time swim... even if it was a longer lunch!

Lindsay said...

well i guess you'll have to *run* there and back to cut out some time ;)

swimming is such an "ordeal" to me to begin with. i'm like "ugggh but i have to pack a bag and change and shower and change back and gah that just takes 'forever'" :) i know, not a valid excuse. long lunches... i'm down with that!

Unknown said...

Lunch swimming = committment! Ha ha. If nothing else, the cap is good for hair control for sure!

J said...

Wow a lunch swim! That sounds great. i wish that there was a pool near me at work. It is just really hard to workout in at lunch.

Julie said...

I know how you feel -- driving to Pincher and back every morning takes an hour of driving. It's a lot of time wasted just traveling you know? I love it in the summer when our outdoor pool is open and I am showered and home by 8:00am. It's an amazing feeling having all that time on my hands! LOL!!!

You should take Finlay to work with you!! Hee-hee!!! Everybody would fall in love with him and people would fight over who gets to take him for a walk on their break. LOL!!!

D said...

I used to swim a couple times a week on my lunch break. It took about a year before anyone noticed just how long those lunch breaks were... I was even squeezing out 4km sometimes.

Sounds to me like it's time for you to hire a dog walker ;)

ShirleyPerly said...

I once swam with no cap when mine broke and found it really annoying even with my hair pulled back in a bun (my bangs did the same as yours). But it could happen in a race too, right? Good practice!!

Maggs said...

I love lunch swims. When I know I'm going to be short on time I'll wear my swimsuit under my clothes. And I'll make sure the clothes I do wear are the easiest to get on/off.

Bummer about the swimcap. I don't think I could swim without one.

Alisa said...

I'm totally behind on blogs but I wanted to comment on this post. This gives me hope that maybe I'll be able to sneak away for lunch swims. I recently found a pool not too far from my office but I'm worried about the same logisitcal issues you mentioned. I'm going to try a lunch swim tomorrow! Here's hoping I can get in and out without too many of my office mates noticing =).