I ain't no Esther Williams!
Target total this week: 109
Lengths swum this week: 30
Target total this week: 109
Lengths swum this week: 30
Total lengths swum: 120 (11 ahead of target)
I'd need to swim 43 lengths this week to meet next week's target.
So, the big picture is that I'm doing well, being 11 lengths ahead of my rough overall target. But the finer detail paints a different picture. I am finding this so hard. Worrying about my neck/back, since I do slow breast stroke with a very poor raised-head technique, I decided to mix up my routine and swim back stroke now and again when the pool was quiet. I'd always found back stroke easy, but I guess I hadn't tried it much since Heartgate. I got into the pool, swam two slow lengths and had a near-death experience as a result. I guess the kicking required is a lot more aerobic than my usual frog legs. It was horrible and I had zero faith that the lifeguard would spot me slipping under the water in an unconscious swoon, but was trying to judge just the right moment to shout for help, i.e. not so soon that it might turn out to be an embarrassing false alarm but not so late that I might actually die on his "watch". So I didn't shout, but I did kneel in the shallow end and wrap my arms around the bars and cling on for dear life until I recovered my vision and could breathe and wasn't listening to a frantic pulse in my ears. Well, I guess it couldn't have been THAT frantic as my defibrillator didn't go off! Small mercies etc... Ha! Anyway, I lived to tell the tale and even swam another 28 lengths (of super-slow breast stroke, of course!) before leaving the pool. Then I went home and passed out on the bed and was fit for nothing else. Though I did end up doing some gardening - or should I say, "gardening" - despite the exhausted wooziness and general lack of oxygen. Ee gads!
So, the plan? Well, no more back stroke for a start! I'm quite happy to remain a slow breast-stroker, if you'll pardon the clumsy expression. Slow and steady might not win the race, but at least it crosses the finish line alive, touch wood. And I'm trying to weigh up the rest:exercise ratio and figure out what's more important to me because the only times I can swim this week are times I really want to be resting. (And tidying, which I know should be further down the priority list, but I'm thinking a tidier house would facilitate resting, which is high up the priority list, hence the fact I should be resting and not tidying. Or swimming? I think you can see my problem!)
I'm going to force myself to go swimming on my rare day off tomorrow, but I will take it easy and not worry too much about how many lengths I manage. And I won't force myself to squeeze in another swim this week. One is enough when I'm tired and busy and have almost 5.5 months of challenge left, right? Right.
And in the larger scheme of things heart-related, I've asked work if I can reduce my hours. It was kind of a scary decision, but now I'm so excited at the prospect. I think it will make my life so much more manageable and enjoyable, if a little less financially stable. But, you know, priorities. And you know I'm trying not to view it as a slippery sloping downward spiral, don't you? Yeah! It's not, it's not, it's not. It could be the start of an uphill climb :)
I'd need to swim 43 lengths this week to meet next week's target.
So, the big picture is that I'm doing well, being 11 lengths ahead of my rough overall target. But the finer detail paints a different picture. I am finding this so hard. Worrying about my neck/back, since I do slow breast stroke with a very poor raised-head technique, I decided to mix up my routine and swim back stroke now and again when the pool was quiet. I'd always found back stroke easy, but I guess I hadn't tried it much since Heartgate. I got into the pool, swam two slow lengths and had a near-death experience as a result. I guess the kicking required is a lot more aerobic than my usual frog legs. It was horrible and I had zero faith that the lifeguard would spot me slipping under the water in an unconscious swoon, but was trying to judge just the right moment to shout for help, i.e. not so soon that it might turn out to be an embarrassing false alarm but not so late that I might actually die on his "watch". So I didn't shout, but I did kneel in the shallow end and wrap my arms around the bars and cling on for dear life until I recovered my vision and could breathe and wasn't listening to a frantic pulse in my ears. Well, I guess it couldn't have been THAT frantic as my defibrillator didn't go off! Small mercies etc... Ha! Anyway, I lived to tell the tale and even swam another 28 lengths (of super-slow breast stroke, of course!) before leaving the pool. Then I went home and passed out on the bed and was fit for nothing else. Though I did end up doing some gardening - or should I say, "gardening" - despite the exhausted wooziness and general lack of oxygen. Ee gads!
So, the plan? Well, no more back stroke for a start! I'm quite happy to remain a slow breast-stroker, if you'll pardon the clumsy expression. Slow and steady might not win the race, but at least it crosses the finish line alive, touch wood. And I'm trying to weigh up the rest:exercise ratio and figure out what's more important to me because the only times I can swim this week are times I really want to be resting. (And tidying, which I know should be further down the priority list, but I'm thinking a tidier house would facilitate resting, which is high up the priority list, hence the fact I should be resting and not tidying. Or swimming? I think you can see my problem!)
I'm going to force myself to go swimming on my rare day off tomorrow, but I will take it easy and not worry too much about how many lengths I manage. And I won't force myself to squeeze in another swim this week. One is enough when I'm tired and busy and have almost 5.5 months of challenge left, right? Right.
And in the larger scheme of things heart-related, I've asked work if I can reduce my hours. It was kind of a scary decision, but now I'm so excited at the prospect. I think it will make my life so much more manageable and enjoyable, if a little less financially stable. But, you know, priorities. And you know I'm trying not to view it as a slippery sloping downward spiral, don't you? Yeah! It's not, it's not, it's not. It could be the start of an uphill climb :)
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Loving the swim post updates! Keep at it! It will get easier! I remember when I first started swimming again a few years back and 10 lengths was like unbearably hard
ReplyDeletebut the more I went back the further I went! Also found you tubing how to swim was helpful! To get the technique and head and atm positions right! Good luck with it :)
Thanks, Claire. I was feeling a bit self-conscious about my boring swim posts (just because I've hardly blogged about anything else this month) so it's nice to know someone likes them!
DeleteI've been an on-off swimmer all my life really and it always has got easier in times past, but I'm not convinced it will this time because everything else in my life is getting physically harder. (Don't make me tell you this morning's stair-climbing story!) But hopefully that's not the case. And I do enjoy being in the pool, I just wish there were more hours in the day!
I have been reading up on better breast-stroke technique (though I'm not convinced I'll ever be a face-in-the-water type) but hadn't thought of youtube. I'll check it out! Thanks :)