Splish Splash

Habits aren't always good for us. If we eat a snack before bed every night, whether we're hungry or not, that's probably not a good habit. If we always watch television after dinner, even if there isn't much good on, that's probably not a very helpful habit either.

On the other hand, when you are used to getting up at 4:50am three mornings per week and used to crawling out of bed and heading to the pool, and used to working out for an hour and a half, heading home having breakfast and then putting in a full day at work, the fact that it's a habit is probably a good thing. It's much easier to do it regularly than sporadically.

And when you've fallen out of that habit for a month, it's a bit of a shock to the system when you try to step back into the ol' routine. Particularly the 4:50am part.

Thankfully, my body remembered the steps even though my brain was a little fuzzy. I remembered to put on my bathing suit. I remember to bring water and NUUN and I remember to eat a date before leaving the house. I remembered my skin cream, my new lock for my locker AND the combination.

Another reason to be grateful was the fact that I was heading back to the pool at the beginning of January. Which means I was heading to the pool with a lot of people who have had a few weeks off, some people who are making good on their resolution to join the Masters class and some folks who are stepping up their training for the upcoming triathlon season.

The lanes were much busier than usual and I shared mine with three other people. On the other hand, our workout was one designed to get our bodies moving again without pushing us too hard to quickly.

We swam distance - but not too much. We did drills - but not too many. We did speed work - but not to the point of exhaustion.

I slipped into the pool fuzzy-headed and blurry-eyed.

I slipped out feeling wide awake and ready to go.

The first step is always the hardest, the second is much easier and, before we know it, we've formed a habit. Looks like I'm well on my way to reforming mine.