Digging Out for a Great Swim

Unless you were living under a rock you probably saw the reports of the massive storm that pummeled the East coast this weekend. The Baltimore/DC area was buried in nearly 2 feet of snow and New York City got it's fair share with about 9 inches. The storm started on Saturday afternoon and picked up overnight. We woke up to clear skies and beautiful snowy streets.

Sunday is typically a swim day for us but going to the pool means we needed the car. So, after a leisurely breakfast we headed outside to dig out the car. The snow plows had already gone by multiple times so we found the car blocked by a nice big snow-plow-bank:

We live in an apartment so we don't exactly have a shovel just sitting around for the one time every three years that it snows more than 6 inches. So, we improvised and used the window brush/scraper instead... That went... slowly.

After about 10 minutes a grouchy old man came out of the building and yelled at us for getting snow on his newly shoveled sidewalk. I offered to use his shovel to clean the sidewalk (and also get the car out) but he refused because he already put it in the basement. Instead he just stood outside and watched us. After about 10 minutes I think he was tired of watching our pathetic attempt because he went to the basement and brought us back his shovel. Things went much faster at that point and before we knew it we were ready to go. I cleared his sidewalk, returned the shovel and we headed to the pool.

It took about a half hour to dig out and by the time we got to the pool it was nearly 1pm. But, guess what? It was empty! The most empty I have ever seen it. For the first 500 meters Sam and I each had our own lane. My. Own. Lane. Really! Then someone else showed up so I jumped in his lane and we completed our the rest of the workout with just the two of us. It was awesome :) I did:

500 meter warm-up
10 x 100's on 2 minutes
10 x 50's on 1 minute
5 x 100 pulling (focus on technique)
100 cool-down
Total: 2600 meters

Only one more day at work and then I'm on vacation until January 4th. I can't wait!