Today I spent most of my time sulking. Feeling really low and fed up. I'm overweight, can't run and I just felt crap and the more I sulked the worse it got.
Then I went swimming.
Tonight was lengths. No drills just endurance. 100m breast stroke (yes I am the breast stroke mafia bear!) then after that I did loads of sets of 1 length breast stroke, 1 length front crawl. Dodging people the whole time as it was a public swim and no lanes. The men were chatting at the end of the pool, some dads were chucking kids about in the middle and some ladies were treading water whilst chatting at the other end. I even managed to do 50m of front crawl on 2-3 occassions which was a major achievement!
Tonight felt a lot easier in that although things were not right I was better able to co-ordinate legs, arms and breathing.
Length 39 saw my right calf twinge in a cramp like manor. So at the end of 40 I stopped and stretched. By this time I was not thinking lets do 40-50 lengths I was doing the 1500m or 60 lengths.
Length 47 saw me get 3/4 of the length doing front crawl then I had to grab my left calf and the side of the pool. Again I got back to the other end and stretched. Most normal people would have thought this was a sign to give up - I however was on a mission!
After my stretch I slowly swam to the other end to borrow a pull bouy. I then finished off using this so arms only! I was going to do the whole 1500m! Only one small snag .... somewhere along the line my mind worked out that 1mile is 1600m is just a small tiny 4 lengths extra!
So that was it! 1hr and 5mins after getting in the pool, having had 2 stops for cramp in my calves I climb out happy and having done my 1st ever 1mile swim! The best bit was as I had been going nice and steady I was happy that I could have carried on! So now I am a lot more confident about the swimathon!!
Now I am also very tired! I think I will sleep well tonight!
Then I went swimming.
Tonight was lengths. No drills just endurance. 100m breast stroke (yes I am the breast stroke mafia bear!) then after that I did loads of sets of 1 length breast stroke, 1 length front crawl. Dodging people the whole time as it was a public swim and no lanes. The men were chatting at the end of the pool, some dads were chucking kids about in the middle and some ladies were treading water whilst chatting at the other end. I even managed to do 50m of front crawl on 2-3 occassions which was a major achievement!
Tonight felt a lot easier in that although things were not right I was better able to co-ordinate legs, arms and breathing.
Length 39 saw my right calf twinge in a cramp like manor. So at the end of 40 I stopped and stretched. By this time I was not thinking lets do 40-50 lengths I was doing the 1500m or 60 lengths.
Length 47 saw me get 3/4 of the length doing front crawl then I had to grab my left calf and the side of the pool. Again I got back to the other end and stretched. Most normal people would have thought this was a sign to give up - I however was on a mission!
After my stretch I slowly swam to the other end to borrow a pull bouy. I then finished off using this so arms only! I was going to do the whole 1500m! Only one small snag .... somewhere along the line my mind worked out that 1mile is 1600m is just a small tiny 4 lengths extra!
So that was it! 1hr and 5mins after getting in the pool, having had 2 stops for cramp in my calves I climb out happy and having done my 1st ever 1mile swim! The best bit was as I had been going nice and steady I was happy that I could have carried on! So now I am a lot more confident about the swimathon!!
Now I am also very tired! I think I will sleep well tonight!
Comments
Well done Pix - the swimathon should be a doddle now - just 900m to go. Once you can do a mile then that'll be easy