This morning was my first time in the pool in about a month. I was sick for a full three weeks, a combination of allergies, flu-like symptoms and morning sickness. Then, last week, we were out of town, but I swam just about every day during our vacation.

And the great thing about exercising in the pool is that my muscles won't be sore. That's the hardest part about getting back into an land exercise routine, lactic acid buildup in the muscles. Not a problem in swimming, both conditioning and resistance strength training. The water massages the muscles during the workout.

I swam about five laps (a lap is down and back, you know, two lengths of the pool), three before my swimnastics class and two afterwards.

My lung capacity has taken a noticeable hit from the illness which was respiratory in its latter stages.

Usually the 45-minute class goes by quickly but today I caught myself looking at the clock every five minutes!

I tend to perform the first 20 minutes of the class, the warm-up, in the deep end, treading water and following the warmup moves as best as possible while keeping my head above water. I want a "no impact" warmup, a warmup that usually consists of jumping jacks, jogging and other impact moves (leapfrogs, cowboy kicks, rocking horse, cossack kicks, etc.)

Then the instructor takes us into kickboxing techniques which none of us like. We all prefer aerobic, conditioning moves to toning, strength exercises. But, in any event, I come into shallower water for the kickboxing because it's just easier to stand and kick.

I'm tired but in a good, used kind of way. Just relaxed fatigue.