Evening swims: So far, so good

Just keep swimming.

Last season, I woke up (well, tried to) four days a week at 4:30 a.m. to swim or ride my bike on the trainer on alternating days. This season, I decided that waking up at 4:30 a.m. sucks and I don’t want to wake up that early ever again unless the bed is on fire or I have to catch an early flight to my tropical vacation.

So, I took a hard look at the schedules for all the pools I have access to, and decided to try to make a couple of hours in the evening work a few days a week. I’m still on a hiatus from running, my preferred evening activity, so the time is now.

Verdict: So far, so good. The pool closest to my house is one of the few 25-meter pools in the area, and since that facility has a separate family pool, it’s not grossly warm like the one near my office. I tried to time my swims so I’d have a bit more than an hour before it closed for the evening, and that was just about perfect for avoiding a million kids and crazy parking situations.

It does take a bit of schedule finagling to make it work. I prefer a late dinner, but have been eating an early mini-dinner an hour before I leave and then another mini-dinner or big snack when I get back. And by the time I get home, refuel, log my swim, finish getting ready for bed (ain’t no shame in putting my pajamas on at the gym), etc., it’s past my bedtime. So I’ll need to rein in the dawdling a bit.

It’s early yet, but I’m hopeful the shakeup will get the season off to a good start. Maybe I can shave a bit of time off my swim while I’m at it.