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Much quieter in the pool today, though as I warmed up I felt that it was going to be quite a struggle. Didn’t sleep too well last night and as a result I wasn’t really feeling on the ball for today’s session.

Nonetheless I think I did pretty well. I did feel a bit slow, especially towards the end of the set, but I managed to complete sixteen reps before my first failure and despite really struggling towards the end I managed to complete the set with no further failures.

USRPT distance this year: 51,750m
Total distance this year: 53,550m

It being the first day back at school today, I went to the pool expecting it to be quiet. Within a couple of minutes of me getting into the water it was already far busier than usual. Turns out that some of the local schools had an inset day, so the children weren’t actually at school anyhow. Hey ho. More choppy water to swim in…

Anyhow, back to the same set as I was attempting last week. I have to admit that I was lacking in energy a bit for this one, not having slept particularly well last night, but despite that it went pretty well. I managed fourteen reps before failing on fifteen and then had one further failure on rep twenty-two. Not my best swimming, but I was pleased to make progress nonetheless.

USRPT distance this year: 50,000m
Total distance this year: 51,800m

By contrast with earlier in the week, today I was the only person in the pool when I started swimming, though two or three others did turn up during the course of my session. Odd that it should be so different today. I’ve no idea why.

Anyhow, back to the same session again. I must have slept awkwardly and woke up with some strange irritation of a muscle in my back that was uncomfortable when I was warming up, but once I got going I completely forgot about it. This time I managed a much stronger performance than the last one, completing thirteen reps before my first failure, then failing for a second time at twenty and going on to complete the set. I was very pleased with this, and actually it felt far less of a struggle than earlier in the week.

Hopefully this bodes well for future attempts at the set and I can improve again next time.

USRPT distance this year: 48,300m
Total distance this year: 50,100m

Awkward day, today. The pool was very busy and I found it difficult to establish a rhythm early on. My set was the same as yesterday, but because I couldn’t really settle in I even had one failure in the first five reps. By USRPT rules that didn’t could though, so I ignored it and carried on as if nothing had happened.

I’m still finding it a very tough set and eventually had a third “proper” failure on rep 21, having previously failed on reps 12 and 17. I’m really not sure if that counts as better than yesterday, but hopefully I can improve later in the week.

USRPT distance this year: 46,600m
Total distance this year: 48,400m

Well, I was expecting today would be tough and I wasn’t wrong. Doubtless some of that was down to the pool being very busy (it is half term, after all). I was sharing a lane with two others who were swimming different sets at different speeds, so it was all quite awkward.

In the end I did about as well as I did on the first attempt at my last set, back on 24th January. I failed on rep 7, failed again on 12 and had a final failure on 18 before calling it a day. It’s not a bad start though. Hopefully I can do better next time.

USRPT distance this year: 45,000m
Total distance this year: 46,800m

Had the pool to myself again today when I started, and there weren’t more than two other swimmers in for my entire session.

Again my target was just to do better than last time, and I did indeed managed to complete twenty-two reps, but felt relatively comfortable at that point and managed to keep going to finish the entire set. Very pleased with myself, I was 🙂

I think I can probably take another five seconds off the turnaround time at this point and still have between twenty and twenty-five seconds rest for each rep. My times for the fifties have been stabilising throughout the set recently whereas six weeks ago I’d probably start just as quickly, but the times dropped off towards the end (though I was still hitting my target most of the time). It’s certainly not going to be easy though. It’s quite obvious how much longer it has taken to be able to complete my current set without a fail than previous ones. Anyhow, I’ll see how it goes next time.

USRPT distance this year: 43,350m
Total distance this year: 45,150m

And another quiet day in the pool. Same set, same idea: just push things a little bit further than I’ve managed before.

And it went pretty well. I managed twenty-one reps before failing for the only time on twenty-two, one more than last time. I’m getting very close to completing the set now. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

USRPT distance this year: 41,550m
Total distance this year: 43,350m