Swimming, 9th January 2018

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

Managed a few more lengths today, but not that many more 🙂 2km total. Still a bit of a slog.

Distance this year: 3,900m

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Swimming, 8th January 2018

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

Back to the grindstone for this year after rather more time off than I expected. Whilst hardly bedridden it’s been a pig of a Christmas holiday feeling constantly full of cold and utterly shattered, so today is my first day back in the pool this year. I managed 1,900m and it took me an age. Clearly it’s going to take a while to get back into things.

Distance this year: 1,900m

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Swimming summary for 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

As it turned out, 20th December was my last swim of 2017. I either wasn’t properly recovered or picked up another virus and just couldn’t find the energy to swim after that.

However, I did make my target of 500km for the year with plenty of time in hand which is very gratifying. During the course of the year my front crawl stroke has also clearly improved, and I’ve learned to tumble turn. Overall it’s been a successful year and I’m really happy with how I’ve done.

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Swimming, 20th December 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

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

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Swimming, 15th December 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

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

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Swimming, 13h December 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

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

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Swimming, 12th December 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

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

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Swimming, 28th November 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

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

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Swimming, 24th November 2017

Posted on January 31, 2018 by james

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

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My first club USRPT set

Posted on November 23, 2017 by james

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 🙁

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