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’m still working my way through the dregs of the coursework for the Swimming Coach qualification. It’s taking a fair while to get everything to what either I or the tutors feel is an acceptable standard. At the rate things are going I’m going to need a book for all my feedback.
Only a little left to go now I think. Then I can start on the post-course work (which also counts towards the qualification).
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
My new stainless mash tun is made from an insulated stock pot, the tricky bit being to fit a tap to allow it to be drained. I opted to go for a tap fitted to the bottom of the pot using a stainless deck fitting.
The initial plan was to drill out a section of the bottom of the pot and remove the insulation. You can see the planned hole here:
Turns out that none of my hole saws would entertain cutting stainless steel, so I had to break out the Dremel and start cutting a “flap” out instead.
Cutting around the inside of the rolled lip of the base of the pot allowed me to remove the flap and scrape out the insulation.
After which it was time to play with the Q-Max cutters again to make the hole in the inside of the pot where the deck fitting was to go
And a second one out of the side to allow the tap to pass through, meaning the pot can still stand on its own base rather than needing to be lifted up to make room for the tap underneath.
The fittings were arranged such that the deck fitting screwed into an elbow beneath the base with a stainless washer between the base and the elbow. A straight section of pipe led from the elbow through the hole in the rim and the tap was to go on the outside. The deck fitting wasn’t a very good fit for the elbow even after trimming the length of the thread down a little. It left plenty of swarf when I tested it:
But it all went together eventually…
For filtering the wort from the grain bed I cheated and bought a ready-made perforated stainless sheet fitted with bolts and acorn nuts to lift it above the base. I’ll try to remember to take a photo of that when I can.
All that done, it just needed a clean to be ready for the first brew.
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
First full week back after the training course and I thought I’d get back into it with a Swimfit session. This ended up being:
8 lengths front crawl
2 lengths backstroke
2 lengths breaststroke
Rest 1 minute
8 x 1 length backstroke, rest 20 seconds after each length
16 lengths front crawl
Rest until breathing returns to normal
4 lengths kick, 4 lengths pull, 4 lengths swim, all front crawl, 15 seconds rest after each length
20 x 1 length fairly hard front crawl, 20 seconds rest
8 lengths easy front crawl
And I finished off by taking the distance up to 2km practising tumble turns at the deep end.
I found the backstroke very hard. I’m sure that’s due at least in part to poor technique, though I also find I have to kick quite hard to stop my legs from sinking.
Total distance for the month: 4,000m
Total distance for this year: 36,200m
Well, they’ve been taking place for the last couple of weekends in fact, but tomorrow is our first day. Somerset decided to run all events (other than the 800m and 1500m freestyle) both long course and short course this year. As a club we decided only to enter the short course events because hardly any of our swimmers have been near a long course pool in more than six months, and those events start tomorrow. Both my son and daughter will be competing and I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on.
