Wednesday's Swim

So Wednesday's swim started off with this Tweet:

I really didn't want to swim and would have much rather stayed at home on my sofa, with my blanket, and potentially a Chinese takeaway... But I made myself get in the car and drive to the pool.

When I got to the pool, I did my usual assessment of how busy the slow & medium lanes were and which of the regular faces I could see to decide whether I'd be OK to be fast in the slow lane or slow in the medium lane. With only 3 people in the slow lane & a busier than usual medium lane, I decided on the slow lane - good decision!

There was one lady swimming quite slowly but she was really considerate and when she knew I was coming up quite close behind she would stop at the end of the length and let me set off ahead of her and this really helped me to get a good rhythm going and keep it going - as a result I managed my 1 mile (64 lengths) in my fastest time ever, 55 minutes! 

The furthest I'd ever swam was 70 lengths so I decided to try and beat this and pushed myself up to 80 lengths... A full 2km! And I felt really, really good! So I just kept swimming:

And I got up to 90 lengths, but I couldn't stop there, despite feeling really tired and having aching shoulder blades, and I continued... 91, 92, 93... All the way up to 100 LENGTHS! Yes that's right, I did this:

It felt so good and I was so so pleased of myself - a few excited texts went out to my Sister, Hubby and Dad!

And to top it all off, it took my January total to 10,050m - beating my 10km target with over 1 week to spare!  Not bad for someone who didn't want to go swimming 🏊

That's got to be worth some sponsorship:

www.justgiving.com/swimkellyswim 

Too Fast For The Slow Lane, Too Slow For The Medium Lane

I meant to blog last night but swimming just 1km (40 lengths) really took it out of me and I was too tired to even type the words so took myself to bed with a DVD on the laptop at 8.30pm.

 

I’m not sure why just 40 lengths felt so hard last night when 64 is my norm – I probably could have pushed myself to the full mile but every stroke just felt like too much hard work!  Maybe because I swam in the medium lane and tried to keep up with some of the faster swimmers in there.  You see, I am now too fast for the slow lane, and conscious that I don’t want to make any of the other swimmers feel uncomfortable by catching them up and overtaking them all the time, but I’m that little bit too slow for the medium lane and end up being that person that everyone wants to get past.  I am quite considerate of my fellow medium lane swimmers and if the person behind me is clearly a faster swimmer I will wait at the end of the lane so that they can go in front of me as I don’t want to hold them up – if only the sloooooow people were as considerate in the slow late.  I think they need to create a new lane… I tried to Google for a word that would represent this lane in between slow and medium but I just got results about when to switch from slow to medium flow nipples on babies bottles, something I have no desire nor need to know, so let’s just call this the Kelly lane!

 

On the plus side – I am now 76% of the way through my January target of 10km.  So far I swum 7550m and spent 4 hours and 45 minutes in the pool – that’s an average swimming speed of 1.58km per hour, far off the speed of the fastest breaststrokers who, according to our friends on Wikipedia, can swim about 1.57 metres per second (5.65km per hour) but not bad for someone who couldn’t really manage a couple of widths a few months ago!  I am swimming twice more this week, my usual Wednesday slot then again on Thursday – I usually horse ride on Thursdays but have been asked to stay late and do a presentation to a Customer at work so won’t make it home in time for riding, but should get chance for a quick swim.  With this in mind, and only 2450m left to reach the 10km target, I think I might just do it this week with 1 week to spare – next week’s swims will just be bonuses!  Maybe I need to set a more challenging February target?!

The Twitter Campaign

My sister started tweeting different people about me doing the swim asking for re-tweets, she got RT by @StMarksHospital who have 171 followers and also @Great_Swim who have over 5000 followers!

So to help raise awareness and hopefully get a few extra £ for my sponsorship I've also joined Twitter! Look out for @_kelly_welly and #GreatLondonSwim

And I've already had a RT from @Utdforcolitis who have over 1700 followers 😊

Twitterrific!

Today's swim was brought to you by...

Ludovico Einaudi

The Calling

Jay-Z

Kaiser Cheifs

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Backstreet Boys

Bruno Mars

Destiny's Child

Gwen Steffani

Faithless... Amongst others that I can't remember!

My sister-in-law bought me a swimming MP-3 player for my birthday back in November and I've only just got round to downloading some music to listen to on it and I used it for the first time tonight & it was FAN bloody TASTIC!

So far in January I've swum 4.35km in just 3 swims - bang on track to at least hit, if not exceed my 10km target for the month!

Not sure what to do tomorrow... Tuesday should be a gym day but it's likely to be really busy still, should I just swim instead? Might have to be a quick 1km though as the casual swim is only open 5.30 to 6.30 on Tuesdays... Gym or swim - decisions decisions!

Things That Annoyed Me Whilst Swimming Tonight

1. Having to reverse park in to a tight spot as the car park was so busy with all the New Years Resolutioners going to the gym & Weight Watchers class
2. Someone had walked mud all through the 'shoe-free zone' that is the ladies changing rooms
3. The smell of the disinfectant cleaning stuff they use (see 2 above)
4. The slowest swimmer I have ever witnessed in my life was in the slow line - I know we all have to start somewhere but this was just taking the biscuit!  I think I would have moved faster if I'd just laid on my back and tried to stay still!  And because it was so busy it was hard to over-take without nearly crashing in to the on-coming 'traffic'!
5. People who block the end of the lane.  I know people need to stop and take a break but leave a little room for the rest of us to touch base and turn around.  One woman kept leaning back against the side and stretching her legs out in the pool in front of her - right where you are supposed to start your new length meaning you had turn around and push off directly in to the path of the people swimming in the opposite direction!  I'm sure she spent more time doing this and chatting to her friend than she did actually swimming & I'm concerned that the IT boys at work said that people are having a wee when they do this (the leg kicking disguised the yellowness apparently) - yuck!
6. Nasty women - 2 women were in hysterics at the breathing technique of one of the men in the fast lane.  I'm sorry love, but if that helps him swim multiple lengths in the fast lane without stopping, I don't think you should be laughing, especially when you are said leg kicker above!  If we were all to be bitchy and laugh at our fellow swimmers you wouldn't want to set foot out of the changing rooms the way you look in your swimsuit - MEOW!
7. The fast lane swimmers' encroaching arms and legs under the lane rope - kicking and hitting me
8. New swimming cap hurt my ears (though did keep my hair dry and make it quicker and easier to get dry after)
9. Goggles kept fogging up so couldn't wear them
10. Eyes got stingy (see 9 above)
11. I stink of chlorine

Right rant over - I really must learn not to sweat the small stuff....

And on that note - Oh yeah, new PB tonight of 70 lengths (1750m) in 65 minutes

 

First Swim of 2014

I really wasn't sure what to expect as I emerged from the changing rooms tonight - would the lanes be busy if the world & it's dog had resolved to swim more in 2014?? Luckily swimming doesn't appear to be top of many peoples 'to do in 2014' lists (though worth noting it's top of my Sister's list: http://morethanjustabaglady.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/bucket-list.html?m=1) - not many new faces but some of the familiar ones were still there!

I seem to have injured my right leg just below the knee - I'm not really sure what it is but I get a niggly pain every now and  then since my Christmas Eve pub ride. I wasn't sure how this would hold up in the water tonight as I could feel it when I went swimming last time on 28th Dec. When I got in tonight, I could definitely feel the pain as I kicked out so I used a little less force in my legs and it seemed OK. I was only going to do half a mile (32 lengths - 800m) as I don't want to push my leg and do any damage but my rhythm felt smooth (for some reason it gets easier the further I swim, totally opposite to how I would expect!) so I cracked to to 1km (40 lengths). Should also help me work off the lemon cheesecake I are at work today!

Hopefully I won't be paying for it tomorrow & my leg will hold out for my return to the gym - though looking through the window tonight, a lot of people have certainly resolved to work out more as it was really busy! Wish me luck!