The long peck to freedom!
Alerted by cheeping from one of the incubators I’ve just gone to have a look and one of the chicks is already well on the way out. It’s not a great photo but it is possible to see that the chick is working its way around the shell, breaking the end off.
Hopefully by tomorrow morning it will have made its way out, doubtless driving the cats bonkers in the process.
Now here’s a thought… What is it that drives developing birds to take the end off the egg like this?
I’m not working today, so I thought I’d go to the earlier public swim session as it is longer. What I didn’t know was that half the pool was roped off for “parent and baby” type sessions, so there wasn’t much room for swimming, especially when a few more people arrived. I had been hoping to have a second go at the last Swimfit session but that just wasn’t practical so I stuck with front crawl again and did 2,500m.
I was very tempted to go in again when I was coaching this evening because it was so hot and humid on the pool deck.
Total distance for the month: 47,600m
Total distance for this year: 195,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 15,000m under
Today I took the incubators off the cradles and removed the dividers so the eggs are just lying on the incubator floors. I also lowered the temperature half a degree and pushed the humidity up a little.
At the same time I weighed the trays for the final time. The eggs in the Suro incubator have lost 148g, or 12.9% of their weight. Those in the Brinsea incubator have lost 13.4% of their weight. I think I can be happy enough with that though in a perfect world I might prefer 0.5% less.
Sadly I just haven’t had time to organise anything camera-wise, but I’ll try to take some pictures as they hatch.
Yet again I was late to the pool today, but at least this time it was due to the arrival of a dumper truck that I’ve rented for the week of half-term so I can shift a load of spoil from building work we’ve had done. More of that in another post perhaps.
So, yet again just a front crawl swim, this time of 2,600m, instead of the repeat of the Swimfit session I did earlier in the week that I had in mind. It felt quite tough, though wasn’t that fast based on the time taken. Given the heat today it was very pleasant just to be in the pool, a fact particularly brought home by spending two hours poolside coaching in the evening when it would have been far more relaxing to have been in the water.
I’m very keen to keep up the distance at the moment. If I can I could reduce the distance that I’m behind target by quite a big chunk.
Total distance for the month: 45,100m
Total distance for this year: 192,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 15,500m under
Very late to the pool today and missed about a third of the session, so I just got on with some front crawl and swam until the bell went for the end of playtime, which turned out to be 2,400m so I wasn’t at all displeased with my performance. I could possibly have squeezed another 100m in, but I’d have been taking the mick in all honesty.
Total distance for the month: 42,500m
Total distance for this year: 189,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,100m under
Today I finally decided to move on to the next Swimfit session, which was comparatively short, but involved quite a few pairs of fast/slow lengths:
20 lengths front crawl
1 minute rest
6 x 1 length front crawl, 20 seconds rest
6 minutes front crawl, alternating slow/fast lengths
rest until breathing returns to normal
same number of lengths as previous set, but faster, 15 seconds rest after each length
3 minutes breaststroke, alternating slow/fast lengths
1 minute rest
6 lengths easy front crawl
I made up the distance to 2,500m with more front crawl and 300m front crawl kick practising breathing to the right.
This wasn’t a bad session at all. I think I managed twelve lengths in the six minutes of front crawl, but was slowing down quite noticeably towards the last. In the breaststroke I think I only managed four lengths. I feel as though I could justify repeating this session once more later this week and then moving on again.
Total distance for the month: 40,100m
Total distance for this year: 187,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,500m under
I was contemplating another SwimFit session today, but didn’t get myself organised in time and was feeling somewhat jaded having spent another weekend at Millfield pool, so took the easy option and ploughed through 2km of front crawl followed by 500m of front crawl kick practising breathing to the right and finally back to front crawl for a 300m swim down.
I still don’t really feel very relaxed breathing to the right though that may just be residual stiffness in my back from the weekend. I shall continue with the kick for another session or two before swapping to pull.
Total distance for the month: 37,600m
Total distance for this year: 185,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,000m under
A slightly different session today. I’ve decided it’s time to actually put some work into learning to breathe bilaterally. I didn’t learn to do so as a child and now find that if I try to breathe to my right I just can’t get my head to move in co-ordination with the rotation of my body. I’ve decided the first step must be to get myself used to moving my head to the right to breathe by whatever means possible and then try to work that into the full stroke.
After 1,000m of front crawl to warm up I got my float out and kicked up and down the pool with my left hand resting on top of the float, pulling with my right arm every eight to ten kicks and attempting to breathe to the right as the arm recovered. At first it was quite awkward and I was having trouble getting my mouth clear over the water, but over the course of a few lengths things improved and whilst I was still not wonderfully synchronised by the end of the session (still exhaling fairly strongly as my head came out of the water) there was a definite improvement over the course of twenty lengths or so.
My intention is to continue with this drill for a few days, then either attempt it without the float or if it’s going well switch straight to pull (with a pull-buoy) and attempt to swim lengths breathing only to the right, gradually working my way up to the full stroke.
And if all else fails, 500m or more of kick each day is hardly going to do me any harm 🙂
Going back to free swimming for 100m swim down after the kick did feel very strange. I was so much more relaxed in the shoulders. I don’t know if that’s just a side effect of working with the float, or just an indication of how hard I was concentrating on the breathing.
Total distance for the month: 34,800m
Total distance for this year: 182,200m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,800m under
[Just realised I’d understated my distance behind target by 800m since 12th May. Now corrected.]
I weighed the egg trays again today. The weights of the eggs this time are 1055g for the Suro incubator and 1062g for the Brinsea, giving losses of 91g and 101g or 7.9% and 8.7%. At this point I’d be looking for between 6.9% and 8.2% so the Brinsea is still on the high side, but I’m quite happy with the Suro. I might try to bring the humidity up a bit more in the Brinsea by filling both the water channels and reducing the ventilation a bit more to try to reduce the weight loss a little.
A return, probably for the final time I think, to that same Swimfit session today:
12 lengths front crawl
8 lengths breaststroke
4 lengths backstroke
1 minute rest
2 x ( 2 lengths each of front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke ) 15 sec rest after each length
8 x ( 1 length each of front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, 30 sec rest )
10 lengths fast front crawl, 30 seconds rest every 2 lengths
8 lengths easy front crawl
I’m still finding the breaststroke and backstroke tough, but it’s time to move on now. I think I’ve done this one enough. I made the distance up to 2,400m with front crawl. I was hoping to get to 2.5km, but they kicked me out of the pool for the lessons that started afterwards which I wasn’t entirely happy about as I’d started late because I had to wait for the pool staff to find a lifeguard. Hey ho.
Total distance for the month: 33,200m
Total distance for this year: 180,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,600m under
