Friday morning around 6:25am, our swim coach turned around the whiteboard to reveal the workout for the day.

It was a simple workout.

All we had to do was get in 500 yards — 20 lengths of the pool — before 7am.

The only ask:

All 20 lengths had to be an all-out sprint

Our coach didn’t care how we did it.

I looked at the time, quickly did the math, and threw out:

“Let’s do them all from the blocks — walk back after each one — on a 90-second interval.”

Patrick Lencioni outlines five behaviors that lead to a high-performing and highly cohesive team:

When a team trusts one another on a deep level, it’s amazing how quickly things can happen.

In a matter of 2 minutes, we engaged in a bit of productive conflict and we’re committed:

20 X 25 yards all-out sprint from the blocks every 90-seconds

At 6:31am the first group went off.

For the next 30 minutes, approximately 30 masters swimmers of all ages, backgrounds, and ability levels climbed up onto the diving blocks…

…dove off…

…sprinted as hard as they could for one length of the pool…

…got out of the pool…

…and walked back to the starting blocks to do it all again.

There were high fives.

There was banter.

There were two phones going, playing pump-up music.

There was hootin’…

…and there was hollerin’.

We were encouraging one another.

We were pushing each other.

We were helping each other.

And with each successive dive off the block, the effort got harder and harder.

And just before 7am, we were walking back to the starting blocks to do our last one.

“Okay, team! Everyone get around.”

We gathered in a circle, and one of the team members led us in a motivational speech — we were the United States of America racing the Australians for gold.

We all put our hands in the center:

“Long Dog on 3!”

“ONE…

…TWO…

…THREE…

…LONG DOG!”

We all laughed, climbed on the block, dove in, and sprinted as hard as we could.

*[If you know, you know…it’s a FoxJets team thing.]*

At last, it was 7am.

And no one was leaving.

For a good 5-10 minutes, we hung around on the pool deck.

We laughed.

We recalled.

We told stories.

And, then, we all went out to get scones and chocolate milk.

We even sung Happy Birthday to a team member.

As I was driving home, I was feeling incredibly full — and not from the post-workout calories.