No coaching for me this evening but my daughter was training so I swam at the same time as her. I intended to do a fair bit of distance as I won’t be able to swim tomorrow so I just stuck to front crawl and did 3,000m in combinations of 250m, 500m and some 50m sprints.
Total distance for the month: 8,300m
Total distance for this year: 115,300m
Distance compared to annual target: 20,700m under
In an effort to improve upon yesterday I went to the pool at a different time today, but this time half the pool was taken up with “Senior Swim Lessons” and everyone else was squashed into the remainder until they were done, which wasn’t ideal for me given the number of people wanting to swim lengths, plenty of children just there to play and so on. I shall have to bear that in mind next time.
Anyhow, I had another crack at my favourite Swimfit session of the moment:
14 lengths easy front crawl
Rest up to one minute
6 x 1 length moderate front crawl, rest for 20 seconds
5 x 2 lengths fast front crawl, rest for 20 seconds
8 lengths fast breaststroke
Rest until breathing returns to normal
8 lengths fast front crawl
Rest until breathing returns to normal
12 lengths easy front crawl
For the first time ever I made it through the breaststroke without feeling as if I was going to die, which is quite a landmark (watermark, perhaps?) for me. I think I can quite fairly move on to the next session now, though I might just do this session one last time.
After completing the session I made the distance up to 2,300m just swimming front crawl.
Total distance for the month: 5,300m
Total distance for this year: 112,300m
Distance compared to annual target: 21,700m under
Getting time in the pool is awkward this week and next because the timetables at the sports centre change for the school holidays. There was at least a lane for people who wanted to swim lengths once it was no longer being used for private lessons, but the range of swimming speeds meant I was catching up with someone almost every length. On a positive note, I did at least manage to swim 3,000m front crawl.
Total distance for the month: 3,000m
Total distance for this year: 110,000m
I watched Jim Al-Khalili’s television programme “Gravity and Me” last night. A fair bit of it wasn’t really news to me though the actual illustration of the change in gravitational attraction as altitude and latitude change was rather nice. And it’s always good to see the clip of the hammer and feather being dropped on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission.
What really piqued my interest however was a short piece at the end of the programme covering a proposal by an American scientist that our perception of gravity is actually the result of masses “trying” to move to a state where time passes most slowly. It’s a strange idea that I’ve not heard before and I’ll have to try to dig up some more information about it. I can’t help being struck by similar ideas elsewhere in physics. For instance, electrons giving up energy to fall to a lower state in an atom, giving out energy as (say) visible light in the process. Perhaps a mass might “fall” to a state where time passes more slowly, turning potential energy into kinetic energy as it does so.
I first came across The Colour of Magic some time in 1984 I think, when it was recommended to me by a friend at school. I was immediately hooked and since then I think I’ve read all the Discworld books (and Nation, the Long Earth series and assorted others) pretty much as they were published. Some I’ve read several times over. I was deeply saddened when Death made his final house call.
Since just before Christmas 2016 I have re-read all of the Discworld novels, including the Tiffany Aching “young adults” (whatever that means) ones, finishing The Shepherd’s Crown today. Reading them almost back-to-back (I’ve spent some time reading up on swimming coaching too) has brought to light many things I missed first time around. The consistency of so many themes and ideas across the entire series is breathtaking, whether they’re on a grand scale or even tiny references and throw-away one-liners (one such that made me laugh for instance was a single mention of Rob Anybody learning to read “Where’s My Cow?”).
I think it’s easy for people to write off fiction written with an element of humour as something trivial and of limited value, but there’s so much more to his books than that. It’s an astonishing body of work and I hope it lives on well after those of us who were here to read the books when he was still alive find our own lifetimers running low.
Work impinged upon the time available for this session, so I just got in the pool and swam front crawl until the start of the subsequent swim school session, managing to cover 2,300m despite feeling the effects of the previous four days, especially in my triceps.
Last swim for this month. I think I’m happy with what I’ve done.
Total distance for the month: 49,400m
Total distance for this year: 107,000m
Oh yes, another crack at that Swimfit session:
14 lengths easy front crawl
Rest up to one minute
6 x 1 length moderate front crawl, rest for 20 seconds
5 x 2 lengths fast front crawl, rest for 20 seconds
8 lengths fast breaststroke
Rest until breathing returns to normal
8 lengths fast front crawl
Rest until breathing returns to normal
12 lengths easy front crawl
This time was probably the best I’ve done at it. I shall do it at least once more next week and then move on I think. Oddly I noticed that although my feeling is that I’ve struggled with this set, the estimated time to complete it is given as and hour and I don’t struggle with that at all. In fact I can probably do it in 45 minutes. It’s just being able to do eight lengths of fast breaststroke continuously that is the killer.
After this I made up the distance to 2,300m with front crawl.
Total distance for the month: 47,100m
Total distance for this year: 104,700m
Feeling a bit weary today (I even overslept despite an early night), so I just stuck with front crawl today, racking up 2,800m. It was very quiet in the pool and I even ended up having it to myself for a fair bit of my swim.
I’m quite some distance behind my target for the year at this point. More than 20km I reckon. That’s going to take a fair bit of catching up, and it’s probably going to get more awkward with school holidays over Easter. To be fair to myself however I did take two weeks out on my Swimming Coach course and that would account for a hefty chunk of that 20km.
Total distance for the month: 44,800m
Total distance for this year: 102,400m
(Yet) another repeat of the last Swimfit session:
14 lengths easy front crawl
Rest up to one minute
6 x 1 length moderate front crawl, rest for 20 seconds
5 x 2 lengths fast front crawl, rest for 20 seconds
8 lengths fast breaststroke
Rest until breathing returns to normal
8 lengths fast front crawl
Rest until breathing returns to normal
12 lengths easy front crawl
after which I made the distance up to 2,200m with front crawl.
The breaststroke is becoming easier at last, but I still think I need to repeat this once or twice more before I can consider to have completed it adequately.
Total distance for the month: 42,000m
Total distance for this year: 99,600m
Just front crawl again today as I wasn’t feeling particularly lively (club swimming gala on Saturday and coaching on Sunday didn’t help there). 2,500m including some more practice on turns. I need to start working the turns into my normal swimming more I think, so I can develop more control over breathing before and after the turn at the pace I want to swim.
Total distance for the month: 39,800m
Total distance for this year: 97,400m
