My final days of my 30s!

This was a bit of an unorganized week because of a winter storm and a couple of surprise guests. It also involved more swimming than I have ever had in one week!

As far as I knew when the week began, I would be in Nashville through Thursday. Then I thought Katy and I were off to Chattanooga to celebrate my 40th birthday, which was on Saturday.

As far as I knew when the week began, I would be in Nashville through Thursday. Then I thought Katy and I were off to Chattanooga to celebrate my 40th birthday, which was on Saturday.

Monday and Tuesday’s swims were a bit of a drag, if I’m being honest. It’s hard getting into the pool when it’s winter. It’s cold, it’s dark, and a race is not close. That said, it’s my weakest discipline, so the more pool time, the better.

What’s funny is it’s not like these swims took all that long. Both were completed in about an hour. But it takes so much more mental energy to do an hour of swimming vs an hour of something else. Give me an hour to swim, and my reaction is meh. Give me an hour of running, and my reaction is yay! This feels short!

Thursday became a big day! A winter storm was moving into Nashville, and I didn’t know how long the city would be shut down.

I’ve always done the tradition of swimming my age on my birthday. I didn’t want to risk the snow keeping me from that. So I moved Saturday’s swim to Thursday and knocked out the 4,000 yards.

In hindsight, I should have stayed home!

That evening, Tiffany and Caitlin surprised me by flying to Nashville for my birthday.

While it did snow, the roads had cleared enough that when my birthday arrived on Saturday. They were pretty adamant that I go swim another 4000 yards since this was actually my birthday.

So that’s what we did. 8000 yards in 48 hours. 🫠


Only other thing of note this week was that I discovered some fake news about the two pools I swim in at Life Time.

When I got a membership here a couple of months ago, they told me these pools were both 25 meters long. I had no reason to question that, so I just tapped my watch over to meters and didn’t think anything of it.

But after a few swims, I was starting to wonder if this was actually a 25-yard pool. My times seemed faster than I expected. At first, I just kind of looked the other way and hoped I could chalk it up to me becoming a better swimmer.

However, the swims this week on Monday and Tuesday seemed exceptionally good. I was suspicious enough that I actually pulled out a tape measure and brought it to the pool before my first 4,000-yard swim. I measured the length of the pool…and WELP. It’s actually 25 yards!

Deep down, I should have known all along. I was just hoping I’d actually gotten faster!