At 4:30 am, you don’t want to think. Actually, you do think. You think “why I am up at this hour”.

I’m a swimmer. That means practice is at 4:30 am, three days a week.

We aren’t going to go into why swimmer’s workout that early, but they all do. And when I swam at that hour, the team I swam with had to set up the pool.

What does that mean?

Removing covers and changing lane lines. I had the luxury of swimming in an Olympic pool. This meant we could swim a length of 25 yards or 50 meters.

Naturally, we did both. 25 yards in the afternoon, and 50 meters in the morning. Each morning before practice, we had to change the pool from 25 yards to 50 meters.

Removing the pool covers, changing into our suits, and switching the lane lines. We had it down to a science. A well-oiled machine with a process that worked every morning.

The process

The process was rolling the covers off the pool, while chlorine steam hit our faces.

On cold days, you couldn’t see across the pool. Thankfully, the pool was heated.

Then, you loosen the lane lines. Pull half the lane lines to one end and the other half to the opposite end. There are also these things called connectors. Because the lane lines are designed for 25 yards, two lane lines don’t make 50 meters. It’s basic math.

So, you throw the connectors in the pool and they float to the center. The connectors are the best job because they’re the least work. No one can see you in the steam.

Last, you connect the lane lines together with their connectors and tighten them.

Now we can swim.

Seems like a long process, but with a full team, it’s done in about 15 minutes. That’s from the time you walk into the gate until you’re swimming. The beauty is you don’t have to think about it.

This leaves more time to question life choices. Like why am I at a pool at 4:30 am.

Establish a process

Building a process, so when it’s 4:30 am at a pool, you can get to work. Or, it’s just Monday morning and I have hit snooze for the last half hour.

Regardless, when we establish a process it works under pressure. When things don’t work right.

Establish a process and it works when we are tired, burned out, and questioning why we keep subjecting ourselves to our work.

I have not swum at 4:30 am in years. Not sure I ever will again. I don’t think I miss it.

On second thought, I am writing about it, so maybe I do.