Workout Wednesday: Pool Time Friends!

Because this is Workout Wednesday, No-Beach-Week-Hurricane edition I decided it appropriate to head into the pool.

I was a swimmer in high school, but I haven’t been in the water recently because a friend at a dinner party told us all about what she saw at the bottom of the deep end of the pool during a recent scuba certification class. For the good of all water sports, let’s all just agree never to speak of these things. Deal? Done!

But because I ultimately really trust in the power of chlorine I headed back to the pool today.

Ready for the best part? In the middle of my workout I reached out to the woman swimming next to me to ask her to take a few photos for the blog. As she turned toward me, I realized that I knew this woman! Dr. MCO and I were emergency physicians together for years. She wasn’t just a colleague; she was a mentor and someone I look-up to in spades. I would watch her walk into a male dominated area of medicine, always bringing Oreos for the resident doctors, and run a level one trauma center and emergency department like a boss. For me, this visual action image was more powerful than any words of encouragement or talk-up speech. If you’ve been to an emergency department near here, Dr. MCO likely trained your doctor to save your life. That is her life legacy from where I sit, but she’ll just tell you about her 3 year old grand-daughter; who I’m sure is equally as amazing!

It made my morning so special to get to talk with her again. Swimming can be solitary but social at the same time which always makes a workout more fun.

My Workout in swimmer speak:

First (100 swim, 100pull, 100 kick)x3

Second (25 fly, 12 pull-ups, 25 back, 12 v-sits ) x3

Third (150 swim, 50 fly kick, 50 back kick)x 3

Workout in regular people speak:

First I did 4 lengths of freestyle swim, 4 lengths of freestyle just pulling with my arms using paddles on my hands and a bouy on my legs, 4 lengths of freestyle kicking with flippers and a kick-board. I repeated this all two more times. I was warmed up!!

Second I swam I length of the pool in butterfly stroke and then I used the starting block to do 12 pull-ups. I then swam one length of the pool doing backstroke, jumped out of the pool and did these v-sits for ab work. I did this all 2 more times!

Third I swam freestyle for 6 lengths of the pool, then grabbed my kick-board and fins and kicked butterfly kick for 2 lengths of the pool followed by backstroke kick for 2 lengths of the pool. I repeated all that two more times!

Dr. MCO gave me some tips as well including paddles for pulling that have holes in them that can be great for beginners. She also showed me a ring swim counter that you can click with each lap so that you can swim -and be in peace- while it helps you keep track of laps.