Sigh. So yesterday was great. Today I just felt soooo tired. Perhaps because I worked hard yesterday, but most likely because I didn’t sleep at all well last night.
I really struggled to make the target time today with two failures, one on rep six! 🙁
I didn’t even bother doing the 25m set. At that point I was just too worn out to carry on. It seems unlikely anything good would have come of it.
Today was a rather different day from last time I swam. It seemed to be one of those rare occasions where I couldn’t swim slowly even if I tried. For the first time I made it through the first five of my 50m reps without dropping outside the target time, and whilst I was expecting, based on previous performance, that a failure would follow shortly, it just didn’t. At least, not until rep thirteen when I couldn’t tumble turn because I could up with another swimmer as we came to the wall and for safety I had to open turn instead. Event then I was less than a quarter of a second outside my target. Whilst I didn’t feel that I had to skip the next rep I did so anyway, probably mostly because I was actually feeling quite tired, but it did also move me away from the swimmer I’d caught up with. Even so the only occasions when my average time has been faster have been when I’ve had more failures or a longer rest interval, so I’m very happy with that.
Even better news was that my 25m reps were just as good. In fact I’ve never swum so fast and completed all the reps in the set. Perhaps I’ll think about reducing the rest interval for those now.
I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow now.
Allegedly the boilers at the pool are fixed, though it certainly doesn’t feel like it when you get into the water. Fortunately it’s not too bad after a few lengths.
I missed Sunday’s session thanks to the pool being closed because of a shortage of life guards so I was hoping today would go well. As with last Monday however, there were a few people in the lane who were really circulating rather slowly and I didn’t always feel that it was safe. I did in fact almost swim over one swimmer because I didn’t realise how fast I was catching up on them. To be fair, some are very good at coping with faster swimmers. Oddly they’re often the faster ones themselves. It’s hard not to feel as though it’s the slower ones who have the attitude that they’re going to swim how they damn well like and it’s everyone else’s problem to avoid them. Unfortunately that won’t really cut much ice if I can’t see you and end up colliding with you going almost twice your speed. Especially as I’m not that far off twice your weight as well 🙁
Anyhow, it went ok-ish and nobody died. Under the circumstances I did the best I think I probably could have done. Hopefully it will be better on Wednesday when I go next.
Our house is in quite an exposed position being pretty much on the top of a hill with little to shelter it from the wind in any direction, but despite being on the edge of the Met Office’s “red” warning area we seem to have got off relatively lightly.
One of the greenhouses has developed a slight lean that will need sorting out when the weather warms up and the roof was ripped off the tree house, but the most awkward damage is a bit of the wrinkly tin on the workshop roof that ended up flapping about and now needs replacing, and this:
It’s tough to see, but there’s a dark patch just to the right of the chimney in the third course of tiles from the ridge, where a tile isn’t. It’s rather more obvious from inside.
The worst thing about this is that the tiles haven’t been made for decades, so they’re irreplaceable. By sheer chance however it must have slid down the roof and into a small hazel trees which broke it’s fall leaving it in one piece on the ground.
Because the house is built on sloping ground and the cellar is effectively above ground at the point below the missing tile, it must be about seven metres to the gutter and a further two to the hole. Way too scary for me to want to play with ladders. I’ve tried replacing the tile from the inside, but there’s too much danger of dislodging another so I’m going to have to talk to Baldrick and see if he has any cunning plans.
More brutal weather today and lots of rain too. I was determined not to waste the day though, so I got out for a few minutes when the wind dropped for a short while and planted out my shallots (Golden Gourmet). That was pretty much all there was time for before everything kicked off again.
It’s all been a bit crazy because of Storm Eunice, but I escaped to the greenhouse (which has developed a very slight lean over the last few days that I’ll have to fix in the summer) for a short while today and sowed many different kinds of lettuce, ten cells of each, three seeds to a cell (or thereabouts). I’ll thin them to a single plant once they have germinated.
These might go into the polytunnel, but could well make it out in the main vegetable plot if the weather is warm enough when they reach a suitable size.
I was also pleased to see that some of the seeds I sowed only a few days ago are already germinating. The onions are really kicking off.
The peas for shoots are starting to make an appearance.
and the radishes are on the go as well.
It’s so nice to see plants growing. It feels as though the year as now beginning.
I don’t know why, but today was just awful 🙁 I even had the fast lane to myself! Regardless, I just felt so tired and there was no power in my arms. One to walk away from and forget 🙁
I was late booking my place in the lane today, but when I did so, less than an hour before it started, there was only one other person booked. I was quite surprised when five people turned up 🙁 Given that the weather is fairly wild at the moment perhaps a few triathlon competitors are trying to get some swimming time in. It did make things a little tricky and initially I struggled to find a rhythm, but after four or five reps I got into the groove and things went pretty well from there. I did have a couple of “fail” reps, but I didn’t count them as in both cases I’d not been able to turn properly because of another swimmer at the wall.
The 25m reps were fairly tough afterwards and I did have one failure on rep 14, but that was the only one.
Thursdays are rarely busy, so with a bit of luck perhaps I’ll get a clear session then.
Whilst I was getting my breath back after finishing my session today I was reading through the session written up on a white board for the triathlon training session immediately afterwards. Not only did it include lengths of pointless “catch up” drill, but also a new one on me, apparently called a “slap” drill.
I overheard the coach explaining to one of the swimmers that the idea was to slap the water with one’s hand at the entry position as either the feeling or the noise of the slap would help identify when the arm was properly extended.
Now I’m at a bit of a loss as to how one one is supposed to hear a slap on the water when in the pool with dozens of other swimmers, and to feel it surely means the arm has to be raised into a completely inappropriate position for the arm recovery. In fact the entire process means the arm and perhaps even the body has to be in a completely inappropriate position for the arm recovery which means that whatever is learnt from this drill, if anything, is not useful in terms of performing front crawl well. I don’t even know how I could manage such a drill given that during the recovery my hand is only just above the surface of the water and my body is rotating longitudinally at the same time. I’m not certainly going to try it, but I think it would completely unbalance my stroke. I also feel sure that those who do manage to perform it will not find that it has any influence on their usual hand entry position either. I know one Iron Man competitor whose right hand slaps the water on every single recovery, to the point where I can tell he is in the pool when it’s fairly empty, even from the changing room. His arm is never at full extension at that point and it has never appeared to prompt him to change his stroke.
So, I’m calling this one out as another useless drill.
Another awkward day with slower swimmers in the fast lane, though not as bad as yesterday. I did however still have to abandon tumble turns on a number of occasions and that showed in the times. It’s a difficult call. The pool has six lanes and they’re being run as three double lanes (slow/medium/fast) which is actually reassuring from the point of view of safety when some swimmers have arms or legs all over the place, but it does mean there’s a huge variation on speeds that have to fit into three lanes, from people who quite possibly take a minute to complete a length to those who can do the same in under twenty seconds. If there’s a better solution, I’m not sure what it is.
