Today I entered back into the chlorine. It was so hard diving in after spending several days in the cool (49 degrees) refreshing water of the San Francisco bay. I had to force myself to the pool this morning but I am glad that I did. I accomplished 4 x 30 minutes of straight swimming with 15 min warm up and a 10 minute cool down. This has slowly become one of my favorite work outs. It is not about the mileage that I put in, it is about the time spent quieting my mind. For the first 30 I found myself lifting my head to see who was doing what in the pool and who walked through the door each time it opened up. After a quick 2 minute break, a few gulps of cytomax and a lime GU, I found my ability to let go was better. The next three 30 minute periods flew by. I forgot my arms were going around and only every now and again would I watch the pace clock to see my 100yd pace. That usually gives me my overall pace so that I can estimate my total mileage. I figure I swam around 4+ miles including my warm up and warm down. Not bad!