Just Get Out of Bed!

My alarm buzzes under my pillow as I reach for it and hit the snooze button. I see that it’s still dark at 6:30am and it’s warm under the covers. Do I really want to get up to go swimming this morning? It’s Monday, it’s still dark, it’s spring forward and I could use an extra hour of sleep, I’m still a bit sore from swimming on Saturday morning. I could go on and on in my mind to justify staying in bed. But then I look forward to when I look back after a good swim session and the sense of health and energy I feel after swimming and rising early to start my day and that is motivation enough to jump out of bed with a sense of urgency. I throw on my swimsuit, then yesterday’s pants and t-shirt and finally my down coat to warm up a bit as I take a few sips of yesterday’s leftover coffee and head out the door.

Watching the sunrise over the mountains is always a majestic sight as the sky turns pink and the contrasting colors of the white snow, blue sky, and green trees dominate the landscape of the place I call home in Truckee. I pull into the pool parking lot and smile as I can tell who is already in the pool swimming based on the cars I see parked outside. I walk inside and plop on the bench as I take my shoes and socks off, like every good pool visitor should before heading to the locker room. As I roll my pant legs up a few times to avoid the typical bottom of the pant leg wetting syndrome, I glance over and see without any surprise one of the most consistent regulars at the pool, Eric Beckert. As he swims non-stop freestyle at 43 seconds per lap for 55 minutes straight, I smile as some things just never change. As I walk toward the locker room, I wave to Lisa who looks so happy to be working the morning shift (a slight exaggeration here), and smile even bigger when I see our old pals Simone and Rick. Without even seeing his face I am able to identify his beautifully smooth freestyle stroke that can be none other than that of my favorite 62 year old Rick Rucker. As he nears the end of the lap he looks up and I wave as I receive an expression of surprise and excitement in his face to see me as it has been quite a while since our last run in at the pool.

After gearing up in the locker room making sure I’ve got just the right fit on my Italia swim cap and proper placement and tension on my goggle straps, I grab my pull buoy and water bottle and head out to the swim deck and prepare myself for the initial shock as I jump into the pool. After chatting with Lisa a bit and catching up on life I finally toss my gear down and the end of a lane next to Rick as I feel water splashing my legs. I look down to see that familiar grin on Rick’s face as he squirts me with water from cupped hands and hassles me about how long it’s taking me to get in the pool and start swimming. I jump in making an intentional splash to get him back and after chatting a quick minute it’s time to start swimming.

I do my usual warm up consisting of some freestyle laps mixed with breaststroke to get my lungs going and into a breathing rhythm. Then I do a few more laps with the kick board to really wake my legs up and start to work a little harder. With no workout plan for the morning I simply decide to do a 200 freestyle followed by another 200 with my pull buoy. All those thoughts of wishing I had stayed in bed rather than swimming disappear as I find my rhythm and enjoy the silence underwater as I swim thinking about nothing in particular. After a solid warm up and a couple sets I decide to challenge myself with 10, 50’s on the minute. For those who don’t know what this is, it’s swimming down the length of the pool and back (50 yards), 10 times back to back beginning each lap on the minute. The first few are not too hard but about half way through they get harder for me as the heart rate is definitely up and I only get about 5 seconds recovery before having to start the next lap. At about lap 8 I start to think to myself, “Why stop at 10? I should go for 15, 50’s today.” So I did. Then at about 13 I decided why not go for 20, 50’s. I’ve never done that many back to back and didn’t even think I could physically sustain that effort without my heart wanting to explode. But today I did. It felt good to sustain a rhythm for that long at such a high physical output for my body. I was pretty stoked. After a good cool down, I decided to visit with my ol’ friend Mr. 10lb Brick. It had been well over a couple months since I last held Mr. Brick but I was ready to see how long I could tread water with him before tapping out. I had Lisa throw it to the bottom of the pool and I took a few deep breaths as I prepared for my favorite form of suffering. I dove down 10 ft. retrieved the brick and surfaced noting the second hand arriving at 30 seconds. I began a slow and steady egg beater kick and watched time pass by as I tried to control my breathing. As the first 30 seconds ticked by I was surprised at how easy it felt, then I began to feel the burn in my legs and struggling to keep the brick out of the water with both hands holding it above the surface. I was stoked to make it to the 1 min. mark and decided to keep going challenging myself to make it to 1:30. I grabbed the side of the pool and tapped out at 1:30 and dropped Mr. Brick down with a sense of victory but also with a sense of challenge. I hope to build my ability back to treading with Mr. Brick held above the water for several minutes as I was able to do in the past before I let myself get out of swimming shape this fall.

After thoughts of bailing out at 6:30 am and then arriving at 8 am having completed a great swim workout and enjoying reconnecting with old friends at the pool I was reminded of why I chose to get out of bed this morning. All of the excuses that passed through my mind were all rooted in my innate selfishness. All excuses stem from our selfishness. I want to sleep longer; I want to protect my time; I want to be comfortable. I’ve been finding that in times when I set aside my selfishness and simply decide to wake up earlier and just show up, the results are always a blessing. When we constantly remain focused on ourselves, we miss the opportunity to be involved deeply in the lives of others. We miss those good conversations, those moments of sharing a laugh with someone, those moments of being challenged to push oneself further than we think we are able to go. Just like my will decided I would swim 20, 50’s on the minute when my physical body wanted to fight against it, I decided to get out of bed this morning and just show up at the pool and be involved in the lives of others. Whether it’s a friendly smile, a wave, a splash, or even a good conversation we bless others by our presence as we are blessed by theirs. We need to be in community and I was reminded of that this weekend after sharing meals with friends and reconnecting with people I hadn’t seen in a while. When I arrive at times of solitude and feeling like I’ve been lacking quality time with people, I’ve come to recognize that it’s always because I’ve been selfish with my time. It’s not that we are too busy to be in community but that we are too selfish to make sacrifices and go to greater lengths to make it happen. So here’s to a new season of just showing up, of making the choice to get out of bed and go swim, or use my lunch break to hang out with a co-worker instead of read a book, or to make dinner for friends on a Saturday evening instead of keeping my time for myself. Time is a precious gift we are given every day and I always complain that I don’t seem to have enough of it, but the truth is I have plenty of time … I’m just too selfish to share it with others. I want to grow in my generosity. I want to be able to freely give time to others because how can I expect to be given time from others if I’m not first giving it. Boom, simple as that; give time away. Get out of bed and just show up!