Missed a session on 23rd unfortunately, so this session I just did 2,200m front crawl in the time available. One of the swim teachers congratulated me on my turns, but had to ask what happened to the dolphin kicks on the way out. I was let off on the grounds that I was feeling a bit tired by then 🙂
Total distance for the month: 37,300m
Total distance for this year: 94,900m
But they strike me as quite unusual nonetheless. We’re having a new roof put on a barn at the moment and I found them inside.
The first is about six inches square:
and the second is about eight inches by six inches:
I’m really not sure what the design is in the centre of the first (is it perhaps a Lotus flower in the centre?). The second looks like it might perhaps be a poppy? Perhaps more unexpected is the swastika motif in the corners of both tiles. My best guess at the moment is that these tiles were made to be used as part of a fire surround, perhaps some time around 1890, and as such they pre-date the association of the symbol with the Nazis. As far as I’m aware, at the time it was better known as a symbol of good fortune that came from religions such as Hinduism. I can’t help wondering if many might have been deliberately destroyed during or after the second World War. Designs using the swastika symbol might have been quite fashionable during the late Victorian era, but how such tiles came to turn up on a small farm in the backwaters of west Somerset is a mystery.
Late to the pool today, so I just got in and got on with what I could in the time available. Swam 80 lengths front crawl and then covered another 400m practising turns again, attempting them at the shallow (1m deep) end of the pool for the first time in quite a while. Last time I tried I usually bumped into the floor of the pool on the way out of the turn. At least that didn’t happen today, though I was still quite close.
Not being able to breathe bilaterally is something of an embuggerance and I’m going to have to face up to learning to do so at some point. At the moment I find myself reaching the “T” without the appropriate time for another breath to my left (the only side I can breathe on) before the turn, which can leave me gasping for air on the way out. Of course handling that may also become easier with practice, or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.
Total distance for the month: 35,100m
Total distance for this year: 92,700m
Another attempt at the previous Swimfit session. I’m determined to get to the point where I can manage this set competently, even if it doesn’t come easily.
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
Once again the breaststroke is the killer. It’s a little frustrating that I can swim 1,000m front crawl with comparative ease, but 100m breaststroke is a real fight. More work on technique required, I guess.
After this set I made the distance up to 2,300m with some front crawl turn practice.
Total distance for the month: 32,700m
Total distance for this year: 90,300m
I ordered a replacement part for our Kenwood Chef online a couple of weeks back. It took much longer to arrive than I was led to expect and I have to admit that my first suspicion was that it wasn’t being delivered from the UK (not that such a thing has ever happened before; oh no!). It finally arrived this weekend and I discovered the real reason for the delay. Whilst the address on the included invoice was complete, the printed label on the packaging just gave my name and the name of the hamlet (and it struggles to be one of those really) where I live. That was all. So kudos to the people at the Post Office who managed to get it to the right place at all.
Was feeling a little tired after a fairly busy weekend, but everything seemed to get easier once I’d started. In the end I swam 1km non-stop, followed by two 500m swims, ten fast 50m swims practising turns and a final 500m easy cool down, all front crawl.
Might be time to try some turns at the shallow end. I’ve avoided this in the past because I was hitting the bottom of the pool on the way out of the turn, but I think I have things under a lot more control now.
Total distance for the month: 30,400m
Total distance for this year: 88,000m
Got my days mixed up and arrived half an hour early for the public session at the pool (though I didn’t realise at the time). The school session prior to the public session were getting out and the lifeguard was apparently content to be there so I got in the pool anyhow. Very kind of him. I swam a fastest ever 1,000m front crawl to start with (not even really trying; it just worked out that way) followed by some turn practice and general stroke work covering another 1,500m.
Total distance for the month: 27,400m
Total distance for this year: 85,000m
Repeated the Swimfit session from earlier in the week today:
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
The breaststroke was better but still nowhere near as good as I’d like it to be (I couldn’t do the entire eight lengths non-stop), so I’ll be doing it again next week. After that I made the distance up to 2,300m with some more front crawl and turn practice.
Total distance for the month: 24,900m
Total distance for this year: 82,500m
As I dropped down from the hills into the local town on the way back from swimming today, through the hedges I could see a strange-looking bank of cloud sitting in one of the valleys between me and the Quantock Hills. When I arrived home I took the camera out and managed to get this picture, though it hardly does the scene justice. By this time the cloud had completely obscured the Quantocks themselves and was building up in the closer valleys, all the while under bright blue skies.
I’ve seen similar views before, but usually on autumnal mornings around sunrise when there are just a few trees poking out of the top of the mist, but it’s rare to catch the cloud actually building up, especially late in the afternoon.
It has been fairly wet over the last few weeks and the ground is very damp, but today was very sunny (I even wore shorts outdoors for the first time this year!). I guess the warm moist air sitting in the valleys cooled rapidly as the Sun was sinking and the moisture condensed out.
There was one other person in the pool when I arrived today and I had a lane to myself. I got in, found the groove and didn’t stop to rest until eighty lengths of front crawl later. I could have gone on too. For some reason today felt really easy.
After that it was back to turn practice, taking the total distance up to 2,800m. Now I’m doing the fly kick when starting the turn it seems to be working very much better, though it still requires too much concentration. Hopefully it will become easier over time.
Total distance for the month: 22,600m
Total distance for this year: 80,200m
