May I just say that the YMCA in downtown Nashville is the cushiest YMCA I have ever been in? Nice pool with wide lap lanes, five (!) of which are available for lap swimming at any time. Outdoor pool to keep the rabble out of the indoor pool. Enormous two-level fitness center with 1/12-mile indoor track, studded along its length with fitness objets like stretch cages and spinning machines for easy cross training. Café inside that will take to-go orders when you come in and have them ready for you to pick up at the end of your workout. A lifeguard who politely reminded me she couldn't talk because she was required to keep her eyes on the water (wow! functional safety consciousness!) A positively cavernous women's locker room with sauna, broad marble vanity countertops, shower stalls with curtained private vestibules, and not so much lockers as cabinetry. Fantastic.
Mark and the kids and I had walked to a Panera around the corner from our hotel for breakfast. I wore my running shoes to make room for my netbook in the gym bag I carried, and then they went back to the hotel while I walked to the downtown Y. As we left the Panera I said to Mark, "Wow — I am actually craving a swim." (I'd skipped my Thursday workout while I was taking it easy after that bout of preterm contractions two nights before).
"Well, then," said Mark, "it's not 'exercise' so much as it's just 'swimming,' right?"
I suppose so. I went on to the Y and had a fantastic swim. I really feel so much better now. When I talked to my midwife yesterday afternoon to update her on how I was feeling — I'd had a little bit of back pain and wanted to check in — she had been the one to suggest that I try to get into the pool for my regular workout. I'm glad she did, because it would have been easy to talk myself out of it — maybe I ought to keep "taking it easy?" But with the strength of her encouragement behind me I made it a priority, and I'm so glad I did. I felt strong and, well, my normal self once I got into the pool again. A nice place to be.
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