Another 1,600m today. Just trying to keep things ticking over until after Christmas.
Total distance for the month: 5,700m
Total distance for this year: 508,200m
Distance compared to annual target: 8,200m over
Another 1,600m today. Just trying to keep things ticking over until after Christmas.
Total distance for the month: 5,700m
Total distance for this year: 508,200m
Distance compared to annual target: 8,200m over
Had to skip a day, but starting to feel a little better now. 1,600m today, just trying to get back into the swing of things.
Total distance for the month: 4,100m
Total distance for this year: 506,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 6,600m over
Another difficult day. Only 1,500m this time.
Total distance for the month: 2,500m
Total distance for this year: 505,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 5,000m over
Having passed my target at the end of November I had a difficult few weeks with some sort of cold virus that left me utterly exhausted. Only managed 1,000m today and it was a real struggle.
Total distance for the month: 1,000m
Total distance for this year: 503,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 3,500m over
Not very far today. Only managed 1,500m today and it was a real struggle.
Total distance for the month: 42,300m
Total distance for this year: 502,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 2,500m over
Finally reached my target of 500km for the year today. I only really needed to swim 1.1km, but was hardly going to stop there, so I carried on until I reached 501km having swum 2,100m.
Total distance for the month: 40,800m
Total distance for this year: 501,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 1,000m over
I’d been asked to do an “endurance” type set this evening (no, not having your face smothered in jam and stuck in a box of ants or anything like they used to do on that Japanese television show that Clive James was so enamoured of). I only had an hour each for two groups and not much information to work from in terms of times. Swimming 25s would have been tricky as the pace clock on our side of the pool is broken, so instead I opted for 50s and gave them a fairly generous time to see how they got on. They’re small groups on a Thursday, which makes them relatively easy to manage and get off the wall on time.
The first group I asked to do 25 x 50m with a 60 second time limit and 20 seconds rest. They all seemed to think that was way too easy, but didn’t really have much idea what doing twenty five of them would be like. Not before they started, at least 😀 They coped very well with a few fails between them, but I think only one swimmer managed the entire set without a single fail. Time-wise it worked out fairly neatly too. I think I could probably do a little technique work first, just reminding them of things they need to think about over a few single lengths and that would probably fit the time available very neatly, giving time for a bit of social kick as a swim down at the end.
The second group did the same set but with a 50 second time limit. They did very well, with only a single fail from one swimmer. Again, they were quite relaxed about the set when they started, but knew they’d been working hard by the end. I think I can repeat this one reducing the times for the non-failing swimmers perhaps by a couple of seconds. At the end their reaction seemed to be that “it was good, but really tough”, which I think is quite positive.
Hopefully we can do more of these, varying the distances and strokes. I’ll have to work on some way for us to do the 25s. Perhaps with an assistant doing the timing at the other end of the pool, each one of us starting the stopwatch when we set the first one off. Or the pool could just fix the pace clock 🙁
Six months ago I had something of a struggle to find a new pair of swimming goggles, but eventually settled on a pair of Finis Bolt goggles that I found very comfortable once I’d got used to them and served well until now. Sadly they’ve reached the point where they’ve collected enough scratches (despite being kept separately in my swimming bag) that I can’t see out of them well enough to read the pace clock at the pool (though that wouldn’t be a problem if they’d fix the one on the side of the pool I actually tend to use).
Someone recommended TYR Racetech goggles and at £8.50 a pair I thought I’d give them a whirl. First impressions are that they look a bit odd, having flat lenses with a sharp “corner” on the outside edge and a very wide strap. The strap is also quite short. When adjusted to fit my head there’s less than 2cm of the end of the strap free after it has been fed through the buckle.
Anyhow, we’ll see how I get on with them tomorrow.
Ok, so I went a bit mad today. Initially I just wanted to do enough to make sure I could make my 500,000m target tomorrow, but I was enjoying it and got a bit carried away, eventually doing 2 x 500m, 4 x 250m, 4 x 200m, 2 x 100m, all front crawl, leaving what I hope should be a fairly easy time tomorrow.
Total distance for the month: 38,700m
Total distance for this year: 498,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 1,100m remaining
Another push for the finishing tape today. Pretty much the same swim as yesterday, but there was time for another 200m at the end, so my total for the day was 2,800m as 8 x 250m, 4 x 200m. My target is so close now that I can almost taste it 😀
Total distance for the month: 35,700m
Total distance for this year: 495,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 4,100m remaining