Back in the Pool

Though I have been swimming every week since the sprogs have been at school, for one reason or another I keep not getting to the training sessions on a Monday night.

But last night I managed to brush aside the tempting demons who were whispering loudly in my ear, Stay, Stay, Spooks is on.... and forced myself to go swimming.

Actually I had been to the pool earlier in the day, but then I was poolside watching the sprogs in their lessons. This is not good for me. I know nos 1&2 are perfectly capable of getting themselves out of trouble in the water, but watching them bobbing up and down in the deep end still fills me with horror. Every fibre of my being is screaming that I should be in there with them, just in case, and yet reality is I would probably end up drowning saving them or something....

Anyway I digress. I actually managed to get some food down me in time to digest properly before my swim, and all the kids were in bed when I left. I actually had so much time for once, I was nearly late.

It has been over two months since I have been at a session, but I have been practising my drills. And to my amazement it seems to have paid off. There were only five of us last night - one who is soooo far ahead of the rest of us there is no point even trying to keep up. But the others are on a par with me. In fact, usually I'm struggling behind them.

But not last night. No sirree. For the first time since I embarked on this nutty triathlon thing, I actually found myself leading off, because when I didn't I caught up with people. Blimey.

Not only that but I managed six lengths fairly quickly without as long breaks as I normally take, and I wasn't totally knackered at the end.

Wooo! result.

I am still incapable of getting the stroke right - viz, I got (rightly) reprimanded for cheating when I did one drill called three point touch. The idea is you stretch your arm to your thigh, raise it to your shoulder and then stretch it out as far as possible, so you get the longest and most effective stroke. I can sort of do this now, but being totally uncoordinated it takes some thinking about. And if I think about it too much, I start sinking. So my way round this is to do the stroke on one side float for a little before coming up on the other side, instead of rolling from side to side as I do it. I also find it impossible still to do this snaking thing with my hand as it enters the water, or have my arm bent enough to push down properly through the water. But I am getting there, and what's more I am actually enjoying it...

Double Wooo!

It was only about twenty minutes before the end that I started counting down the time till the end of the lesson, which is pretty much a first for me.

It's always hard work remembering quite how many lengths you've done.

But last night I think it went like this:

Swimming on side dipping head in and out of water x 2 lengths
Superman x 2 " "
Shark x 2 " "
Double Shark x 2 " "
Swimming with one arm x 2 " "
Swimming left arm only x 2 " "
Left arm up/Right arm down x 2 " "
Using float and kicking x 4 " "
Fists only x 4 " "
catch up x 4 " "
three point touch x 4 " "
Three breaths up/Five breaths down x 4 " "
Bending arm through the water x 4
Doing a length in eighteen strokes x 2 " "
Five strokes front/five strokes back x 2 " "


So I think I did about forty lengths.... Which is the most I've ever done and amounts to swimming about 1000 metres. Well, ok, I didn't do it all at once ( I could do that easy peasy breast stroke) but it's a huge leap for me with the crawl. So

Triple Wooo!!!

I'm actually looking forward to next week....

The downside is I went for a run with another mum this morning and my legs felt like lead. But it was pleasant (if slow) and you can't have everything....