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Didn’t swim on Monday as I didn’t feel particularly well. I’ve missed a fair bit recently what with half term changing the pool times. Today half the pool was roped off for some training thing that was going on and unfortunately the rest was very busy at the time I got in so I decided to stick with front crawl. I covered 2,600m including some turn practice. Interestingly I seem to be getting to the wall “on my other arm” now. When I initially started to learn to tumble turn I pretty much always got to the wall with my left arm pulling to initiate the rotation. Yesterday I found it was almost always my right arm. Hopefully this is just because my stroke is improving and I’m taking one fewer to complete a length. That does seem to be borne out by the fact that I used to be taking a breath as I was under the flags and now when I take that breath the flags are slightly behind me.

Total distance for the month: 19,900m
Total distance for this year: 52,100m

Last swim of half term week as it turned out. Half the pool was in use for lifeguard training so there wasn’t much room. I just did 2km front crawl again to keep the momentum going.

Total distance for the month: 17,300m
Total distance for this year: 49,500m

Time is limited this week because there are holiday clubs taking place at the time I normally swim and the pool is also running a lifesaving course that needs to use the pool a fair bit. I didn’t get to swim yesterday for that reason and today just managed to fit in 2km front crawl.

Total distance for the month: 15,300m
Total distance for this year: 47,500m

Another Swimfit session that worked out as:

12 lengths front crawl
8 lengths breaststroke
4 lengths backstroke
1 minute rest
12 lengths, moderate pace alternating front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, 15 seconds rest
8 x 1 length front crawl, 1 length backstroke, 1 length breaststroke all fairly fast, 30 seconds rest
5 x 2 lengths fast front crawl, 30 seconds rest
8 lengths front crawl easy

I made up the distance to 2km with some front crawl turn practice.

Struggled with this set though. I think I shall repeat it next time I do a Swimfit session.

Total distance for the month: 13,300m
Total distance for this year: 45,500m

I was having a fairly stressful day today, so it was something of a guilty pleasure to sneak off and spend some time swimming to relax even though I didn’t really have the time.

I swam 2,600m front crawl, mainly as 500m sets with some turn practice at the end.

Turns are definitely becoming easier though I’d not go quite as far as to call them “controlled” yet. It is at least fairly rare now that I end up pointing at completely the wrong angle when I leave the wall, and when it does happen I can usually recover the situation rather than shooting off sideways.

Total distance for the month: 11,300m
Total distance for this year: 43,500m

Back to the Swimfit sessions for today, which for me was:

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
6 lengths easy front crawl
2 lengths easy backstroke kick with a back-end scull
2 lengths easy breaststroke
2 lengths easy front crawl

After which I took the distance up to 2.1km again practising tumble turns at the deep end.

The breaststroke was tough for me. I couldn’t do eight lengths back-to-back and had to stop for a breather in the middle. My turns are improving slowly though. Certainly so if the amount of pool inhaled during the turn is any measure 🙂

Total distance for the month: 8,700m
Total distance for this year: 40,900m

Simple swim today: 2,600m front crawl with some turn practice. Had the pool to myself for a fair bit, and a double lane to myself for almost the entire swim.

Total distance for the month: 6,600m
Total distance for this year: 38,800m