www.tanstaafl.co.uk

Something of a mix-up at the pool today as they’d changed the time of the assessments for the life guard training they’ve been doing this week, but neglected to tell anyone or update the website. We were eventually got it sorted, which is just as well given how awkward it is getting to the pool at the moment. Fortunately I think the road works should finish at some point this week and life will hopefully return to something approaching normal.

Anyhow, after warming up I did thirty 50s practising bilateral breathing, followed by some front crawl kick, for a total of 2,200m. An easier end to quite a busy week.

Total distance for the month: 55,700m
Total distance for this year: 307,800m
Distance compared to annual target: 13,200m ahead

A repeat of yesterday, but sadly in a cramped lane with too great a variation in swimmer speeds, making it quite difficult to build a rhythm 🙁

Total distance for the month: 53,500m
Total distance for this year: 305,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 13,000m ahead

Beat the lifeguard trainees into the pool today and had most of my swimming done before they arrived. Really enjoyed the session, too. So much that having reached 3km of front crawl, kick and bilateral breathing practice I did a couple of hundred metres more for the hell of it 🙂

Even if I hadn’t done the extra distance, today marks the passing of 50km for the month and 300km for the year which is really pleasing.

Total distance for the month: 50,300m
Total distance for this year: 302,400m
Distance compared to annual target: 11,800m ahead

Even more changes today as half the pool was taking up by people doing their NPLQ lifeguard training, so it was a bit cramped having to share the test with parents taking their children for a splash around. Still managed 2,900m of front crawl, kick and bilateral breathing practice.

Total distance for the month: 47,100m
Total distance for this year: 299,200m
Distance compared to annual target: 10,600m ahead

Complete change of arrangements for the next couple of months as the pool has switched to the school holidays timetable. Fortunately for most of my session it was pretty empty, only getting busy quite near the end. It was fun, too. So much so that I pushed the distance to 3,200m of front crawl, kick and bilateral breathing practice.

Total distance for the month: 44,200m
Total distance for this year: 296,300m
Distance compared to annual target: 9,700m ahead

Fridays are usually shorter sessions and I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do, but after 20 lengths warming up one of the swimming club parents turned up to do some training on 50s, so I decided to do the same and practice bilateral breathing. I only covered 1,600m as a result, including doing a few lengths of kick at the end, but it’s not been a bad week so I was happy with that.

Total distance for the month: 41,000m
Total distance for this year: 293,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 8,500m ahead

Pretty much a re-run of yesterday. Same sort of session, same distance covered 🙂

Total distance for the month: 39,400m
Total distance for this year: 291,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 8,900m ahead

Arrived late at the pool yet again, but had a little more time to play with today. I still stuck with front crawl and kick however, for a total of 2,700m. Today it felt as though the swimming was starting to become easier again, so perhaps I’m returning to the same form I had before we went on holiday.

Total distance for the month: 36,700m
Total distance for this year: 288,800m
Distance compared to annual target: 8,200m ahead

Got to the pool very late on account of trying to find a better route that avoids the closed road, so I just did 2,200m front crawl and some kick until the session ended.

Total distance for the month: 34,000m
Total distance for this year: 286,100m
Distance compared to annual target: 7,500m ahead

First day back at the usual indoor pool, and a pleasure to swim in cooler water, if quite hard work getting back into the swing of things. To celebrate I added a few hundred metres each of kick and bilateral breathing practice to the usual front crawl and covered 2.8km in total.

The bad news is that a few hundred metres of road on my route to the pool has been completely closed and traffic diverted along a route that probably gets close to an extra twenty miles. The only shorter routes involve lots of single track backroads with limited numbers of passing places. The one I took today doubled my journey time. I’ll have to try something different tomorrow.

Total distance for the month: 31,800m
Total distance for this year: 283,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 7,300m ahead