High, Low, High

It is only Tuesday and it has been a bit of of an emotional swimming rollercoaster. 

On Sunday I swam 4000 yards at the Tetherow Sport outdoor pool and I felt pretty good, not great or fast, but good and steady! While that yardage isn’t typically something to brag about it was the first time I had swum that far since early November. I was feeling really proud of myself.

As my readers may recall from prior blogposts indoor pools in Oregon have been shut since mid-November and outdoor pools opened on December 2nd. Fortunately, for me, the pool at Tetherow opened. Likely the only open pool within a 100 miles. It is only two lanes and a bit warm but that was ok. Since that time I swam 4 to 5 days a week in the dark in the light and in all types of weather, clear blue skies, somewhat cold, cold, windy conditions (aka-pool whitecaps), rain and even snow. It was becoming my new pool and routine.

I really got into a groove making my two 30 minute back to back lap swim reservations sometime between 7:00am-9:00. A post swim hot tub was always in order to soothe creaky joints.

Today I got the email I had been waiting for and…dreading. It was from the manager of the club very politely letting me know that it isn’t permissible to schedule back to back sessions, in particular during peak times. Her suggestions were to book the 30 minute slot and then move over to the third lane which really isn’t a lane and swim until you do a flip turn onto the stairs that descend into the pool or to swim later in the morning. Both not ideal but certainly doable under the circumstances.

I was just getting into the new swim schedule mindset when I got a gift of sorts via Instagram. The post said that with the loosening of covid restrictions the Juniper Park Pool (#95 & #96 Long, long, ago… ) would be re-opening! This is a game changer. Yes, reservations will be required and you have to pay to use the pool but that is ok. You can book back to back swim times, it’s a bigger pool, it will be cooler and hopefully I will have a chance to meet new swimming friends!

Happy to end the week on a high. Looking forward to having a choice of swimming holes.