Swimming, 4th February 2019

Posted on February 5, 2019 by james

Unexpectedly busy at the pool today. Made for a session that wasn’t really enjoyable given the need to avoid others who apparently aren’t able to swim in a straight line.

Anyhow, I attempted the same session as last time, but struggled and could only get as far as rep 12, one fewer than the previous session, before my first fail. From then I managed to get to 21 before my next failure, one better than last time, so it wasn’t all bad news, but here’s hoping for better tomorrow.

USRPT distance this year: 31,050m
Total distance this year: 32,850m

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Building an observatory. Construction #40

Posted on February 5, 2019 by james

Snow arrived this weekend, so I wasn’t keen to do much outside. It did at least provide the first load test of the steel roof structure however (aside from me hanging off it when I was constructing it).

This is as far as I got last time, with battens on the sides of the joists supporting 9mm ply to discourage the local fauna from nibbling at the insulation. At the bottom right of the photo is the depth gauge I made to set the battens at the correct depth to allow for the ply and insulation above it. I’ve left a section at the end so I can work on the ducting for the cabling to the piers and fit the power supply to the observatory when I finally get that into place.

So the next step was to drag the 70mm insulation out of the barn where it had been left after the completion of another project and fit it into the floor. A nice easy bit as the insulation is a doddle to saw to size.

And then the last piece to complete the majority of work on the floor was to cut the last sheet of 18mm ply to size and drop it into place over the insulation. This was a bit more fiddly than all the others despite being the first not to have to fit over a pier. I ended up doing a fair bit of planing to get the dimensions correct, but eventually it dropped into place very neatly.

I’m not sure what’s next at the moment. There are jobs around the outside that I need to get finished, but given the unpredictability of the winter weather perhaps I’d be better off ordering ply to line the inside and thinking about where all the electrics are going to go.

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Swimming, 31st January 2019

Posted on January 31, 2019 by james

I sat in the office today waiting for the forecast snow to arrive (and doing the odd bit of work too :), but the weather remained resolutely clear so I drove to the pool wondering if I should ask the staff to let a life guard know if it started snowing so they could stop me. In the end I didn’t bother.

After Tuesday’s disaster, today went much better. My current set is still very tough for me and I had two failures again, on reps 13 and 20. Very little different from Monday (reps 14 and 20 that time). By the last couple of 50s I was really getting quite ragged though 🙁

I left the pool with the slightest hint of sleet appearing as I walked through the car park, so my timing seems to have been pretty good. We’ll have to see if it’s possible to get to the pool tomorrow.

It’s the end of the first month of the year too (where did the time go?) and I’m happy to have reached over 31km for the month. Given my current set style that’s quite acceptable.

USRPT distance this year: 29,350m
Total distance this year: 31,150m

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Swimming, 29th January 2018

Posted on January 29, 2019 by james

The pool was unusually busy when I arrived today and had two lanes in place, one with three people circulating at a leisurely pace, the other with two swimmers swimming side by side, one clearly significantly quicker than the other.

The lifeguard put in a “slow lane” sign for the first and “fast lane” for the second, which I joined (I’m really not fast, but I’m faster than the people who were swimming at the time). The slower, older swimmer read the sign and switched to swimming clockwise in the lane, but showed no intention of moving. In fact she clearly decided that she could do breaststroke and wouldn’t get in the way of the two of us swimming front crawl 🙁 A little later she decided to change to backstroke up the middle of the lane, but stopped and stood up every time she got to within 10m of the wall at the shallow end and walked the rest of the way. Totally bonkers! I was on the point of asking a life guard to “have a word” because I was concerned about ploughing into the back of her when she got out.

So, it was quite a messed up set, difficult to hit starting times and to be able to turn safely. In the end I just tried to do the best I could and swim the complete set even if it wasn’t at the right intervals. I’ll have another go at it later in the week.

USRPT distance this year: 27,650m
Total distance this year: 29,450m

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Swimming, 28th January 2019

Posted on January 29, 2019 by james

Same set again today, and the same chilly water.

I felt pretty good though, and that seems to have shown in the results. I managed to complete 13 reps of my current set before being unable to continue for rep 14, then managed to get to 19 after which I just couldn’t go for rep 20. The final four reps were a bit ragged, particularly the turns, but I did still manage to complete the set.

USRPT distance this year: 27,650m
Total distance this year: 27,650m

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Building an observatory. Construction #39

Posted on January 28, 2019 by james

The weather this weekend has been quite unpleasant, with rain most of Saturday and high winds (cold ones, too) until sunset on Sunday, but this afternoon I did manage to get just a little done on the observatory, whilst dodging the sleet and ice showers.

My first job was to finish off the ducting under the floor of the warm room. That was all fairly drama-free and now I have six ducts, two for each pier.

After that I cut some battens to run along the joists in the warm room and fixed them in place, then cut lengths of 9mm ply to fit between the joists and rest on the battens. This will, I hope, discourage some of the local wildlife from picking at the insulation which I am going to lay on top of the ply before cutting the final 18mm sheet of ply for the floor.

That was pretty much all there was time for, particularly as handling large sheet materials such as the insulation and the flooring ply really wasn’t going to be practical in such windy conditions. It’s good to see the floor so near completion though. That will make life so much easier.

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Swimming, 25th January 2019

Posted on January 25, 2019 by james

As promised, a repeat of yesterday’s set today. Well, almost a repeat. A repeat with colder water 🙁 More of that in another post, perhaps…

I had two targets today. The first was to manage more than six lengths before my first failure. The second was to reach at least twenty reps — that is, either reach the end of the set or not fail for a third time (at which point I’d stop anyhow) until at least rep twenty-one.

Things went well to start with and I didn’t actually fail for the first time until rep eleven, when I just couldn’t leave the wall because my breathing was still so ragged. After that I managed to get to sixteen and then again just couldn’t get my breathing under control soon enough to start number seventeen. From there on I managed to make it to the end of the set, though I’d have to admit to being quite ragged over the last two.

Here’s hoping that next time I can make over halfway before the first failure.

USRPT distance this year: 25,950m
Total distance this year: 25,950m

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Swimming, 24th January 2019

Posted on January 24, 2019 by james

Today I was definitely expecting to be tough. I decided if I could make ten reps of my new set before failing then I was doing really well and I’d be very pleased with myself. Unfortunately we had no lane ropes in today and I ended up swimming alongside someone who smacked the water hard with his right hand every time it entered the water (he was doing front crawl only) and another person who was either doing breaststroke or double arm backstroke, and wandering about a bit across the pool. It was rather choppy as a result.

Anyhow, I started off and finished rep six before being completely unable to get control of my breathing again to start number seven, so I had to skip that. It was the same story another five reps later and I had to skip number thirteen. I then managed a further seven before reaching the point where I just could not go again for rep twenty-one, at which point I called it a day.

So, that leaves me with a decent target to work towards. Back tomorrow, all being well, and if I can do at least twenty reps with a first fail later than seven I’ll be happy.

USRPT distance this year: 24,250m
Total distance this year: 24,250m

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Building an observatory. Unexpected problems #1

Posted on January 24, 2019 by james

#1, because I feel sure there’ll be more 🙂

It’s been raining a fair bit recently and when I went into the observatory the other day I discovered a puddle of water on the floor halfway along one of the side walls. There’s no way water can get in there, so tracking it back I discovered that rain is pooling in the gap between the roof rail and the side of the warm room roof and running or being blown down the side of the rail until it reaches sufficient volume that it runs down the wall.

For the moment I’ve blocked that gap with a bit of membrane and that’s helped, but I need a better solution. I know someone else has fixed the same issue by making a small “wall” of off-cuts of EPDM to fill that gap. That may be the simplest way forward for me too, but I think I shall also remove the rails that are alongside the warm room roof and bridge the gap underneath with some silicone sealant, to stop water running down the inside of the rail. I might also remove each of the screws holding the rails down and put some more sealant into the holes. Hopefully that will be sufficient to stop water running in from anywhere.

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Swimming, 22nd January 2019

Posted on January 24, 2019 by james

So, back to the pool again with the intent of properly completing the set I really should have had done and dusted yesterday.

By comparison the pool was really quite busy today, but fortunately I had a lane to myself and just got on with it. No drama, no real trouble, just 24 reps of 50m on time and all neat and tidy. I felt quite pleased with myself. And flatteringly, a woman banging out the lengths of front crawl next to me and probably not a huge amount more than half my age turned to me when I was waiting at the end and said “You’re super fast!”

Anyhow, all sorted. Back next time with a new, harder set.

USRPT distance this year: 22,750m
Total distance this year: 22,750m

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