You'd think this was my first time

but it's not. I'm just so stinking excited about my return to swimming I can't hold it in.

I quit the Y one year ago for a number of reasons that I can't remember now. I do know they made sense at the time though. So Monday while running errands, I stopped and signed up at the Y again. I'm going back to my M-W-F swimming. Swimming, for me anyway, is definitely a thing that needs to be done regularly. I can skip a couple of runs and be just fine. I can miss a bike ride or two and it's not a problem. If I don't swim regularly I lose it. So M-W-F it is.

Today, being Wednesday, was my first day back. The Y pool opens at 6:30 but the head swim instructor gets there at 5:30 and she starts swimming at 6. So usually we can start swimming at 6. At least that's how it was a year ago. I didn't know if things changed at all. So I got there about 6:15, I thought that was a good time. I walk into the pool area and the same people are swimming. The same ladies are walking/bobbing in the open swim area. The same lifeguard is leaning against the wall half asleep. It was literally like I hadn't missed a beat. Nothing had changed in the past year. It's nice to know you can count on some things to remain the same.

A couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of my return to swimming, I purchased some new swim stuff. I got this totally 60's cap which I just love:
It's silicone. I've never had a silicone cap and I absolutely love it. It's my new favorite item.














I also ordered a couple of new suits:
Aren't they cute? And they were on sale for $19.95 each. Now that's my kind of swimsuit :)






Finally, for Christmas, hubby got me this:





It's a waterproof mp3 player that attaches to your goggle strap. Last night I sat and filled it all up and used it today. Very cool. The earplugs take a little getting used to, especially since I hate plugs that go inside the ear. The ones I have for my iPod rest over the ear but don't go inside. But it works and it's cool and I really love it. It was great fun swimming with some music this morning. Usually I get pretty bored when swimming but this really made the time go.

Okay, so all this new stuff is great but how did the swimming itself go?? It was fine. I didn't really have a strict plan today. I have only swum twice in the past year so I decided just getting back into the water was a major achievement. So I just took my time, leisurely swimming laps for 30 minutes. I swam slow and was working on some form since I hadn't done it for so long and thought I'd forgotten how :) I did some freestyle, some breaststroke, some kicking, a little backstroke. Just moving through the water and getting used to swimming again. I did not count my laps but I'm guessing I did about 750 yards or about 690 meters. I took lots of breaks and did a bunch of kicking since my legs seemed to have forgotten how to do this. I'm going to swim again on Friday, just easy no pressure. Then on Monday I'll start working on things. I have 103 days to master the swim before my first triathlon. Oh, this is so exciting.