Sunday morning makes my sixth trip to the pool. It was my first Sunday, and unlike during the week, when LA Fitness is open at 0500, on Sundays it doesn't open until 0700, so I was sort of worried the pool would be crowded. Boy was I wrong. When the doors opened, only 4 of us were waiting to get in (unlike the dozen or so during the week), and I had the pool to myself almost the entire time.

I'm getting better at the laps. I can swim for 30 minutes, and after about 4 laps, I start having to take short breaks (down from a couple of minutes to now 10-15 seconds) between lengths. I'm still limiting myself to 30 minutes, while working my laps up, and i'm up to 13-15 laps.

I was a tad distracted today. The sun was high in the sky when I started, and I'm accustomed to start my laps just as the sun comes up. Also, I was spending the time thinking about issues at work (like how I'm going to head that meeting about getting our survey scores up, and hope I don't go off one one of my Monkey Rages at the meeting). I have one nurse (not a new grad but new to us) that is having problems. The consensus is to let such nurses go (they can hurt patients, they can hamper teamwork, they can get us sued, yada yada yada) but my vision has always been that I should do everything I can to keep nurses in nursing for as long as they wish to be there. And if that means giving someone some extra time and coaching, then I'm going to do it.

But nurses can be such bitches. They say we eat our young, but that's just for a snack. We really tend to feed best on the fresh bloody flesh of our peers. So the negativity becomes a leadership challenge.

Oh, and above all that, after my 8th lap, I couldn't get the idea out of my head that I had forgotten to pack a fresh change of clothing for after my workout. I usually come dressed in a swimsuit, T-shirt and shoes. The logistics of getting out of the club sans pants and underwear was a tad distracting (luckily, I did pack a change of clothes -- whew!)