5:40am

After 20+ years of avoiding structured swimming practices like the plague (I was overcoming a childhood filled with them...), I'm back at it.

I've been going to Masters' swimming practices two or three times a week and amazingly enough, I'm loving them. It's been easy to wake up in the dark and even easier to jump in an outdoor pool where the temperature is warmer that that of the air. We do creative and challenging sets, and I work my butt off.

And I see the sunrise at the end. That's worth the price of admission.