Water Recovery

I love the pool. I love swimming. I love water.

I was feeling a lot of aches and soreness from yesterday's run. My back, my legs, my abs, my arms (?!) and my whole body hurt. But by noon, all I wanted to do was go to the pool and relax.

I grabbed my pool bag, got my girls ready, and the three of us headed to the gym. The indoor pool was almost completely empty. Yay. I knew the outside pool was open, but it was a little cold, and I wanted the comfort of the indoor heated pool. I let the girls go do their thing and started swimming some easy laps. Within the first few laps I felt the muscles relaxing and my mind calming.

With every stroke, I relaxed more and felt the anxiety, stress, doubts, fears, worries, and frustration leave my mind. I also felt the muscles as they effortlessly propelled my body in the familiar motions through the water.

There is some powerful healing that comes from water. It has always been a soother of my soul. I don't know why I don't spend more time at the pool or at the lake.

Oh - that's right. It's because my time is already so limited that it is nearly impossible to squeeze in time to go be in or on the water. But - summer's coming. I will definitely have to work on the water time this summer.

38 minutes and 1400 yards later, I was wiped out. But in a good way. I got out, dried off, called for my girls to get out of the pool, and spent a few minutes talking to a couple of the swim coaches. By the time I got home, I felt like a new person. A very tired person, but so much more "chill."

We spent a lazy evening as I got things together for the week of work & school, figured out lesson plans for an upcoming unannounced observation, and got the boys birthday banners hung.

I'd almost completely relaxed when everything came crashing down around me. I just took a deep breath, sighed and acknowledged that I should really enjoy those fleeting hours when they come, because they never last.

As exhausted as I was, the sudden upheaval had me wanting an outlet. I couldn't run. Shouldn't do the elliptical. But I could do something. So I worked on my arms until the point of exhaustion again. By the time I was done, and had vented to my best friend, I was ready for bed. I couldn't fix the problem tonight and was determined to forget about it. So, I got in bed and watched my fave show.

I drifted off fairly easy. But, here I am, 12:30 AM, and I'm wide awake. I'm not in the mood for continued discussion with friends, am too irritable to focus on a book or anything, and don't want to wake anyone else up. So - I decided on my next favorite go-to activity -- writing.

Now that I've poured it all out on "paper" - I'm going to try to sleep again. Of all weeks, this is not the one that needs to have disrupted sleep or crazy chaos going on. But - again - there's nothing I can do about it tonight - so off to bed again I go.