Swim

Remember the kid at school who spent ages putting together the perfect exam revision timetable? The one that was colour coded, with each subject highlighted, and every hour of spare time between now and the exams planned out in meticulous detail? That was me. Of course, the knack is to schedule the time to plan out...
Read more »

An unusual swim session tonight, involving lots of backstroke - ’standard’ and double-arm. We did: Warm-up - 100m crawl, 100m backstroke, 50m kick 1st Set: 400m, alternating level 8 front crawl, and catch-up for each 50m 2nd Set: 400m, alternating level 8 front crawl, and breast stroke for each 50m 3rd Set: 400m, alternating front crawl, and double-armed...
Read more »

So after just too much trouble with leg cramps when swimming, I went to see my doctor on Tuesday. It turns out that ther’s good news and bad news on cramp: Good News: It’s surprisingly common, though most people get it in bed rather than when swimming. Bad News: No-one really knows what causes it. But all...
Read more »

The triathlon season’s pretty much upon us. What that means at the NE31 Tri Club is monthly time trials in the pool. Every last Monday of the month, we get to swim 400m under the gentle encouragement of the coach, Peter. The time you clock then determines your times for the next four weeks’...
Read more »

Yet another tough session in the pool tonight - one that involved the full range of toys at our disposal. After the warm-up, we did 400m of hand paddles, which I’d never used before (did I mention that I’m quite new to ‘real’ swimming?). Interesting things - you get to really feel it when you...
Read more »

This evening was a tough session with the NE31 Tri Club. A 550m warm up, followed by 20 x 50m, on 80s start times. Basically this was supposed to be a ‘Level 8′ speed session (10 = flat out, 9 = race pace, 8 = just below), and I was doing fine up to...
Read more »

Yet another tough session under the NE31 Tri Club’s coach’s sadistic gaze. A 250m warm-up, followed by 800m alternating between level 6 & 7 on each hundred, and then 200 kickboard, 200 pullbuoy, 200 kickboard and another 200 pullbuoy. There’s obviously something badly awry with my kicking though - it was like I was stationary...
Read more »

Ohhhh - a really tough session with the tri club tonight. The coach is either going to make a man out of me, or kill me trying. There’s obviously still something wrong with my technique, as I tire & slow down so quickly during the session - I think it might be something to...
Read more »

Well here’s one way to get everyone swimming a little faster! But that’s not what I did on Friday, though it was tempting for a while. No, while I was off skiing with Daughter, my order from Swimshop.co.uk had arrived in the post - a kickboard (oh, deep joy!), a pullbuoy (I can hardly contain...
Read more »

I’ve given up my gym membership! I originally signed up because I needed to be a member for Daughter to have her swimming lessons there with Swimtime (HIGHLY recommended), but they’ve now relaxed this rule, and I don’t have to be a member. I figured that I’m getting two good swim workouts a week...
Read more »