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The slow chap in the fast lane was there again today 🙁 Doing backstroke, badly. Every time he passed under the flags he’d slow down even more and start turning his head to look for the wall. Gah! I gave him two thirds of a length head start and I was hitting the wall next to him just as he was about to set off on the next length. And I wasn’t the only one going at a significantly faster pace than he was. There were only three people in the “medium pace” lane, too.

I don’t know if I’m just feeling excessively aggrieved because I’m a bit tired at the moment, but I am a bit miffed about the situation. The lane is quite clearly labelled “FAST” at both ends, and he clearly isn’t. (In fact I’m not either really, but I’m usually the fastest person there.)

Rubbish swim today 🙁

To get to the sports centre I have to cross the bridge over the railway in the town, but it was closed and the posted diversion was about ten miles. I ended up dodging down country lanes to find another way and was late for the start of the session. Then even later because I arrived at reception (there’s no automated entry) behind someone who thought they’d just stop and have a chat for a while with the only member of staff there.

And when I got in the pool there were three other people in the fast lane, two of whom were clearly way too slow and unaware of what was going on around them to be safe there, but wouldn’t move to a more appropriate lane (I assume they didn’t book for the fast lane, but decided to swim there because there weren’t so many swimmers). After I’d almost stamped on one in the middle of a tumble turn and swum over both of them because I didn’t realise they were there (I gave one a length head start and still caught up with her on her next length) I pointed out to the lifeguard that it really wasn’t safe, but he wasn’t particularly desperate to do anything about it 🙁 The other slow swimmer (who was regularly stopping halfway up the lane to wipe water from his eyes because he wasn’t wearing goggles) stopped at the end of the lane next to me at one point and said “It’s too busy in this lane”. Err, no. There were only four of us.

So it didn’t go very well at all and I didn’t bother counting lengths because I was too busy trying to avoid the others and swim in gaps where I thought I wouldn’t catch up with them.

Swimming was really hard work today after sleeping quite badly last night thanks to the humidity. I was feeling so tired after forty lengths and pushed on a bit further, but fifty-two was the best I could manage which is quite poor really.

Rest day tomorrow, then Thursday is going to be fun as the only major road that I can use to get to the sports centre is closed all day. There are some single-lane roads I can use, but usually there’s at least one lorry driver who has decided that his truck really will fit down them.

Another trip to the pool late this afternoon. Given that there were fifteen people in the same session last week I was expecting it to be relatively busy, but in fact only five people turned up and I had the fast lane to myself. Looks like the post-lockdown excitement at being allowed to go swimming has already worn off for some 🙂

I worked hard today and it was tough going, but things went pretty well and I did better than any of my swims last week so I’m certainly happy with that. My technique was getting a bit ropey in the last few lengths though, and my right bicep suffered from a bit of cramp where I have a mahoosive inflamed area from being stung by my bees yesterday. I’m finding that sometimes I have to concentrate so hard on technique that I miss my markers for the turns and make a complete pig’s ear of them. I intend to use passing under the 5m flags as an indicator that the end of the lane is coming, take a last breath as I reach the “T” at the end of the lane line, take one more full stroke and then flip into the turn with the following stroke, but when I’m concentrating really hard my eyes sort of “switch off” and I end up reaching the “T” without realising it was coming and then have to try desperately to get a breath in before I run out of space and hit the wall 😀

Already looking forward to going tomorrow now. I just hope my body can keep up the pace!

Another swim today. In some respects it wasn’t so hard as earlier in the week, but my body is clearly tired. There really wasn’t a lot of power in the stroke. Friday must be more popular too, as there must have been at least a dozen people swimming. Apparently in one session on Wednesday there was only one swimmer!

I’ve booked myself in for four swims next week, but properly in the fast lane this time (rather than just using it anyway having booked for medium) as it’s becoming clear that regardless of the “official” designations, the actual split between lanes is “slow and not very confident”, “slow, but swims regularly” and “everyone who is not slow”.

I’m hoping that after a couple more weeks of this I can get back to “proper” training, actually using times and suchlike, but for the moment I need to give my body time to adjust.

I went to the pool again today having skipped yesterday to give myself a bit of recovery time. Numbers have dwindled from fifteen on Monday (half the capacity of the pool I think) to only five (including myself) today and I was the only one in the fast lane. I didn’t feel very fast though. It felt like swimming through treacle. And I’m so tired now. No muscular soreness though, which I guess is a positive. I suspect however that it’s going to be a long road back to where I was at the start of the year.