I'm back into swimming, praise be given the long cold winter is over! Yeah yeah, I could have used the little indoor pool with its lanes of unspecified length, but seriously? Winter, swimming, me? Don't want to not going to do it.
Now that the 50 metre pool is open again, I've been going every Monday with a "Don't negotiate with terrorists" attitude. After my first aborted attempt at going, that is. On that first day, it was cold and drizzly, and there were no parks in front of the pool, beside the pool, over the road in the carpark designated as overflow parking for the pool, the council carpark adjacent to that, or up the street. I could have parked in the shopping centre or library carpark and walked to the pool, but the fact that all the carparks were full indicated that perhaps the pool was packed too. So I let the terrorist beat me that day.
I've been surprised to see that I've picked up where I left off before winter. 30 laps, which is 1.5km, and completing it in nearly 30 minutes. This is 30 minutes on The P'ool Clock, which I spell with an apostrophe in my mind because it is about as accurate and keeps time as well as The Playschool Clock, necessitating the apostrophe.
My Personal Trainer, okay, my good friend who is really knowledgeable about nutrition and fitness who is studying to be a Personal Trainer, said that to build up fitness and go further, going 10% further each week is a good rule of thumb. I don't see this as an infinite possibility, but today I decided to try 33 laps, just to see if I survived.
A funny thing happens as I swim. The first lap nearly kills me. It's my freestyle lap and I tend to go a bit hard first up, because I'm cold in the water and want to get warm. (I also wear flippers to give extra resistance - excessive cardio kills me and I like to mix a good amount of strength training into anything I do. The flippers work lots of muscle groups in my legs, and help me actually move forward in the pool, unlike my tiny size 6 feet - about as effective as paddling a canoe using butter knives.) The second lap is breaststroke, and it's my favourite in the set of 6 laps I repeat, but the third is where I put on my hand paddles for extra resistance and go hard at freestyle again. The third lap is usually when I start questioning whether I'll make it to 10 laps, let alone 30.
By laps 12, 13 and 14, I'm a bit depressed I'm not half-way yet, and wonder if I should stop at 20. But by 18, I know that I'll make the distance.
Today though, but the time I got to 26, I knew I had more than 4 more laps in me, and I also knew I'd make it to 33 easily.
Better make it 34, I thought. Don't want to get out at the deep end, and walk in the wind down to where my towel is.
But then after 34, I knew I would make it to 40. By that stage I'd abandoned my usual set of 6 laps and ditched the hand paddles and kickboard laps. I was just doing freestyle and breaststroke, and I noticed that as I did my freestyle laps (35, 37, 39) I started wondering if I'd do 40 laps. I was getting pretty exhausted by this time. But the breaststroke laps encouraged me - during 34, 36 and 38 I knew I could make it.
And I did! I swam 40 laps, 2km!
How about after I do 50 laps (2.5km) I treat myself to a pair of swim fins?
3 comments:
Yay! Go you! And those swim fins look like a fantastic reward. (Well, for you. They'd be a crap reward for me since I don't know how to swim.)
I've been negotiating with terrorists a bit in the last couple of weeks, although still exercising a lot more than I did over winter. Which, frankly, wouldn't be hard. I think I only have to exercise twice to hit that "more than winter" goal. Anyway, you've inspired me. No more negotiating with terrorists!
You are awesome. I love the look of those fins, and I think they would be an excellent reward.
WoooHoooo!! That's excellent! Well done!
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