Recently in Swimming Category

Swimming.  With characters.

Most people know that swimming has given me a lot to write / talk about over the years and generally it is because of the comical situations that arise in the pool.  We have Mr Cologne, Mr Flipper Man, Mrs Dry Hair and a few others that I can’t really recall because I may or may not have seen them lately.  Three constants remain and in general, I’m pretty happy and content with the way things are.

Then you have one of those kick-in-the-jaw clarifying moments and realise that another character that has yet to be named  has joined the lane and he needs an introduction.

This morning I got myself to the pool in good time and it looked like I wasn’t going to struggle to finish the session for once.  The first set of my session I felt heavy, I felt slow, I felt like the water had a current even if we were only in a 25m pool, and that current was moving against me all of the time. 

Mr Flipper Man arrived early today, as did Mr Cologne (who has taken to talking to me lately.  But if he calls me duck one more time I might be tempted to quack at him).  Mr Flipper Man was in a mood and didn’t even greet anyone as he got in and set about getting his workout done. 

Over in the fast lane I noticed the regulars doing their thing, while in our lane we had a few people that I rarely notice, but didn’t particularly care. 

There was one man though.  Just one man.  He was swimming breaststroke and with his insanely long legs, his kicks seemed to reach over both lanes that were assigned to our group.  Passing him was always going to be a problem.  A problem, but not an impossible one.

It took a few laps before this particular problem arose for me.

I was hitting the last few repeats in my second set when I had to overtake him.  I moved to the left.  Thankfully he didn’t.  The overtaking seemed like it was going to go smoothly as I managed to get next to his feet without any incident or scratches or broken arms or fingers or any such thing. 

Then I took a breath to my right and saw stars and tasted blood and felt like someone had just sucker-punched me right in the jaw.  I kept swimming, glad that the water would probably enter my goggles and hide the tears in my eyes.  As I got to the end and therefore a rest stop, he pulled up and also stopped. 

“Are you trying to bite me?"  he asked, a slight smile on his face. 

I’m sure he thought it was a tad of a joke, but my lips begged to differ.  He pointed at his foot and I noticed the scratch that my unfortunate teeth must’ve left. 

I nodded, smiled, started swimming again, afraid that if I rested any longer I’d have to contend with that mean left kick again.

Afterwards he asked whether I was okay before heading into the showers and I found that my lip was not as big as it felt.  Instead it looked pretty normal, except when you look on the inside and noticed a teeny-tiny cut on my lower lip.

Not sure what I’m going to name him, but I guess that depends on whether I’ll run into him again!

It is cold outside.  Beautifully cold.  Cold enough for me to want to stay on the couch, watch the European X-Country championships again and then crawl downstairs to get some hot chocolate.

The weekend was relaxing and in many ways good for the soul.  I’ve been far too stressed at work and hopefully with the new year will come some natural relaxation.  The office is already kind of quiet as everyone goes off for a week or two before Christmas and New Year.

This week I have a few goals:

1. Sort out any racing plans I might have for 2009
2. Sort out any holiday plans I might have for 2009
3. Find out where my new passport is as my old one runs out on Jan. 9th
4. Hide Peg-leg’s Christmas gift – he’s already nearly found it 3 times and I’m starting to suspect I have to mail it to his mum’s in order for him to NOT find it.
5. Clear out the guest bedrooms.

If I can accomplish that, I’ll be perfectly happy.

My arms want to fall off - its a good thing the desk is here to keep them in place while I'm typing away.

Last night I got home and got on the bike and did an easy session.  Lowering my cadence to the required cadence felt strange, but as a result of it, I managed to do a longer session (the session that I had to do instead of my flimsy 45 normal minutes) and 15 minutes later I was still capable of keeping myself upright on my own two legs.  So much so that I could go for a quick walk around the estate with peg-leg.

I was tired though and skipped watching Heroes;  instead I went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly, knowing that this mornign I had to make it to the pool, come what may.

6:00am rolled around and I tried to convince myself it wouldn't matter if I skipped this morning. The bed was so much warmer. Peg-leg made me some coffee and I couldn't disappoint him.  I put on my swimsuit, grabbed some clothes for work, a towel, some shower related items and headed off to the pool.

The water felt lovely.  Not warm, not cold, just right.

The lane had 6 people in it.  Two women who felt they should take it so easy that they could hold a conversation (they actually HELD a conversation the entire duration of their swim), an old man who was friendly enough to speak to everyone, me and two men who should learn how to share.

I didn't mind the women.

I didn't mind the old man.

The two men that remains :  the first man swam down the middle of the lane.  Not clockwise like the rest of us.  To add to it, his pace wasn't all that fast and I saw no reason why he should hog the middle of the lane.

The second man ... was a character in itself.  4 lenghts into my swim I passed him.  I tried to leave a fair amount of space between us and he was swimming freestyle at the time.  No sooner was I next to him, then he switched to breaststroke.  A thump on my left calf numbed my leg, but I figured that it was an accident and swam on.

From there it got u-g-l-y.  Everytime I came near him - passing from the front or the back - he would do something.  A smash against the head (first time I also thought this was an accident, but after the third smash I felt that he was being a horrible sport), a hit against the shoulder, another kick on the leg... I felt like I was in a mass start of a triathlon rather than a pool in the middle of civilised England.

I carried on, didn't let him realise that he was getting to me and finished my session, at which point my arms felt like falling off and I was ready to call it a day.

Training just took a step up.

Sometimes amused, other times a tad more sleepy... that's mostly how I arrive at the pool in the morning and this morning was definitely more sleepy than amused. I meant to be at the pool at 7, but waking up at five-to-seven made that near impossible unless I was racing there like a speed demon at 120mph. Yeah, not happening.

So I got to the pool at 7:30 and it was quiet. Graveyard quiet. Except maybe for the girl behind the counter who swiped my card without so much as a word. Maybe she's a zombie or something. Although, maybe everyone is a zombie at that time of the morning.

There was exactly 8 people in the pool - 3 in the narrow fast lane, 4 in the less narrow medium lane and... 1 in the lane that takes up half of the pool... yes, the slow lane. I hopped into the medium lane for good measure and this prompted the girl that was doing backstroke and the-man-that-wears-too-much-aftershave-to-the-pool to move to the slow lane. The girl that swims backstroke did a very good job of swimming diagonally, so it was probably a blessing in disguise.

It was in the pool that I realised my body is still a tad tired. And I don't mean in the I-got-too-little-sleep kind of way. I mean in the at-some-stage-I-tapped-all-the-energy-out-of-my-body kind of way. I felt SLUGGISH. But I swam until I could swim no more without being late for work and then rushed through the shower where the pregnant girl/woman was soaping herself up to the point that I thought the bubbles would start rushing out the door, into my little cubicle, realised I didn't bring socks (AGAIN!) but decided what-the-heck and put my boots on anyway.

Now there is 30 minutes left before I shall go for a run, but first I have to await my husband's return from work with the goodies that he got from the store that will make my clothes whiter than white and smelling fresher than fresh. All without hanging them outside because some storm has decided to hit the UK and batter us with winds and water.

Have a fun day everyone!

Whoever thinks that riding off into the Sunset sounds like a happy ending has obviously never ridden off into the sunset.

This afternoon we drove home from the in-laws and as luck would have it... the sun was setting ... and we were driving into this spectacular bright light that was at the end of the highway.  Of course I was in the driver's seat and being a tad blind, the sun's glare was enhanced by my glasses that I was wearing. 

Everytime we went underneath a bridge my eyes would burst into song for the relief it was getting, only for me to suffer a temporary 3 second blindness and star spell when we came out from under the bridge.

Needless to say, I mentioned this to Andy and he instantly started to suffer from white-knuckle syndrome  I was so thankful when some clouds decided to save the day that I instantly stopped at the nearest Primo Coffee and got something to drink.

Unfortunately the time of day and sub-zero temperatures has kept me inside for most of the day and the only part of my body that's been doing any running since Wednesday has been my nose.  Thankfully it decided to start taking a rest since this afternoon and I'm feeling a ton better now.

I'm sitting upstairs, too lazy to go to the lounge, considering getting out the dvd that's been in my bag since Friday and doze off even though it is only 7pm.  I've already set my alarm for the new regime that kicks in tomorrow - an early morning swim followed by some work ... followed by a run. 

I've run out of excuses, now the work starts.

Waking up at 6:30am is never easy. Waking up at 6:30, having coffee, and being at the pool at 7:00 is even harder. But I managed to do it this morning and once I got to the pool felt sufficiently lazy enough to not want to get in. I found myself a spot in the ‘medium pace’ lane and started swimming. After one or two lengths I started feeling fine and enjoyed just taking a slow swim.

Every 6 lengths I would take a short break and observe the people around me. There were quite a few old ladies in the slow lane with a few old men and even the woman that doesn’t like to get her hair wet. She was in true form again – keeping her head so high above the water that there was NO way she would even get the tips of her hair in the water.

What made my morning though, was when I got out of the pool and headed to the showers. As I went into the showers, this particular specimen of female came out... with her hair in a towel. She had washed her hair... which wouldn’t be unusual, but after the care she took to NOT get her hair wet, it was mildly amusing that she then went and washed it just after she swam.

I guess its one of those things I won’t understand for the life of me, but it did make me smile.

The London Triathlon 2008 Entry Confirmation

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What to expect from us

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In the meantime, check the website www.thelondontriathlon.com for up-to-the-minute information.

All that remains is for all of us here at The London Triathlon to wish you the very best with your training. Should we be able to help or assist you with anything else then please do not hesitate in contacting us.

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The London Triathlon
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Swimming training is always an interesting event... and yesterday was no exception.  I swam continuously, only to stop twice and took my space at the far end of the pool where no-one normally swims, so that I wouldn't have to fight anyone for space.  I don't know whether others took this as a sign to swim there as well, but the pool got fairly busy fairly quick after I got in.  An older woman joined me in my lane, which wasn't much of an issue as I counted my laps and did various mathematical calculations with each lap number.  Its a way to keep my mind busy without thinking too much about other things which causes me to lose concentration on my swim technique.

Right, back to this female swimmer.  She was swimming breaststroke all of the time and as I approached my second length past her, she stopped (thankfully it was in the shallower side of the pool) and tapped me on my shoulder (first of two stops).  I stopped and then nearly fell over again.

"Could you please not wet my hair as you swim?" came the request from the woman. Astonished at the fact that someone could come to the pool (which is a TRAINING pool) and make such a request I looked at her for a second and without realising answered with a "You do realise this is a pool?" which was probably a little cruel.  Probably more blunt than I should've done, but she stormed off with a "I'm going to speak to the lifeguards.".

I carried on swimming and during a short break saw the lifeguard talking to this woman with a suppressed smile on his face.  Shortly after she stormed off again (I can't describe it in any other way).  It was about 6 lengths later that I received a tap on the shoulder.  The manager of the pool requested that I don't splash her - if I felt like playing around I should go to the part where there are no lanes.  I in turn, informed him that I didn't splash her, that I was merely swimming in the lane and as I passed her during my training, some drops of water inevitably was going to make it to her hair.  For a few seconds it looked like he didn't know what I was talking about, but then a lightbulb went on and he looked at her.

"You DO realise this is a pool and that you ARE going to get WET?  She is on the training side and if her training requires her to swim crawl, she doesn't have to change to swim breaststroke just because you don't want your hair wet?" 

The manager said a few more things that were slightly more blunt than anything I could've said, but he clearly felt that she wasted his time and I'm sure he was just returning her attitude that she displayed earlier.  She took off again and went to the desk where I'm pretty sure she tried to cancel her membership.  I'm not sure I could ever understand anyone that goes to a pool and think that their hair wouldn't get wet.  If she wanted it to stay dry so badly she could've gotten a cap or something, but she striked me as someone that always got their way in some way or another and couldn't accept that she didn't get it here.

I also spotted a particularly hairy man in the pool, but that's a story for another time.

I have to say that the new schedule that my coach gave me is a lot ... how to put it ... not less training, but it feels like it is. There are two less days of running and two more days of cycling. And Andy's taken a sadistic turn and now does not fail to kick me out of bed at 6 in the morning.

This morning I got up and did my cycle session - it felt hard at the time, but right now I am pretty glad I did it. It means I don't have to tonight :) Of the three disciplines, cycling is the one that I don't like training for, even though I do enjoy cycling. It can get incredibly lonely without someone there to talk to, but this morning I had the television on and Lilo & Stitch helped me through my ride on the trainer.

Afterwards I was feeling tired, sweating like a pig and wishing that I didn't have to go to work. I took a shower and the world seemed like a better place. As I cycled, I was trying to keep myself motivated, because I knew that the bed was just a short trip up the stairs away. If at any stage I had gotten off that bike, I wouldn't have gotten back on.

It was so different than the swim last night. I had to do 3 X 500m (timed) and whereas the first two 500m's was completely open water, the third one was swum with 5 other people in the lane. It felt like a true openwater swim - I had to watch out or get another swollen lip. The RLAB man was there again - I found myself behind him on the third 100m and swam really wide to make sure that he didn't give me a kick. I really enjoyed the session though. I didn't need to keep myself motivated.

I guess there'll be a fair few ups and downs, but in the end I'll get there :)

Tonight's swimming was fun. We arrived there just as the lane swimming started and for the first 15 minutes there were only 3 people in the pool. Then it filled up and things got tricky as we had our local rocking-like-a-boat swimmer (RLAB) and we had the granny who felt that anyone that dared to splash anything around her (even though she's in the next lane), needed to burn in the fires of hell.

I didn't really make any notice of them, but RLAB and myself were in for a bit of a struggle as to who were supposed to be where in the lane. At some stage he decided to cool down without moving over into a slower lane, which is all fair, as it is wide and we could swim past him. The problem with RLAB swimmers though, is that they kick in different directions and keep the lane pretty much occupied.

It was during one of these overtakes that I got to know his left heel a little better. I stopped at the end and rubbed my very sore lip and made sure there was no blood. Great. Then turned and started swimming, now not so willing to overtake him, but I started moving so that if I moved closer, I wouldn't be in his way. It was out of the blue that he then, as luck would have it, had a particularly wild kick and the next moment I could taste the blood in my mouth.

This time I had indeed bit through the skin and the pain was enough to bring tears to my eyes (as if the water that came in through my goggles at the same time wasn't enough already).

So tonight, I'm doctoring a bit of a thick lip, soothing my eyes, and looking forward to sleeping a little.

It is a fairly hot day here in the Midlands, UK. This morning when I drove into work I saw some drops of rain fall on my windscreen and thought to myself that today was the day we were going to get another thunderstorm and the air will cool down a little. As it turns out, those few drops that fell just contributed to the humidity in the air and made things less pleasant than before.

But enough of that. I have something to tell you, something to ask you, and hopefully I can help someone make a dream come true, even if it is a drop in the bucket, many drops eventually does fill the bucket. I don't normally do this, but it breaks my heart to see someone as talented as this woman, seeing a dream slip away from her.

Yesterday I found out that a woman in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, won her age group during Ironman South Africa. In doing so, she qualified to go all the way to Kona and compete in the Ironman World Championships on the 21st of October. The problem is that in South Africa, the exchange rate is completely nonsense. The average salary a month is around R8000 – which roughly translates to about $1000 or £615 a month.

A return ticket from Port Elizabeth to Hawaii costs around R20 000. When she found out that she qualified (way back in March!), she paid the entry fee and decided that she would try to raise the money via various fundraisers and even her club jumped in to help, but from what I hear, she’s not had much success.

At this moment, three months later, she still hasn’t reached the halfway mark, and with every passing day, she trains her heart out, but when I spoke to her yesterday (I phoned her to find out how it was going), she fears that she’s not going to be able to make it to Kona.

I think it is heartbreaking that someone who has worked that hard won’t be able to get to take part in something that is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Is there anyone else out there that feels this way and might want to help? I’m posting this on the odd chance that someone might want to contribute to helping her get there. I’ve already contributed to her fundraising myself, but a few more drops will definitely help her.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll keep you up to date on how things are progressing, but in the meantime, if there is any way that you feel you would like to contribute or help, please email me or leave a comment and I’ll get in contact with you.

Her name is Davera Magson – if you want to see a picture, go here– on the front page she’s the one on the left and on the news section of the page, there is a bit that she wrote as well as the appeal to her club members to help with fundraising.

An update on my lip : the swelling has gone down a load. This is good news although my lower lip is still a little pouty. I'm not worried about it though, I'm sure it'll be fine by tomorrow morning.

Tonight we went to the pool and lane swimming is back in its normal slot outside. I couldn't possibly tell you how glad I was that this was so :) There was two old ladies who slowed everyone down, but it was a load of fun. I'm starting to recognise the faces in the pool. Its always the same ones and they always ask you what you're going to do on a particular afternoon.

Two kilometers later I got out the pool and since I slept in this morning (even though it was cool enough to run), I then got into my running gear and started my one hour run around the lovely cool and shady fields of the leisure centre. My legs felt like lead (I guess the swimming took more out of me than I realised), but I was just happy to be out in the open and jogging.

Some people were training their dogs on the fields and I made the mistake of running past them the first lap. I love dogs and had to stop and play with the smallest of the lot. The owner didn't seem to mind. She probably thought I was crazy to just stop while running and playing with a dog I don't know.

Afterwards we came home and Andy made the most lovely pasta and meatballs.

I'm going to go for a nice shower and nap now. Tomorrow is an off day, so I'm going to enjoy getting some sleep tonight.

Yesterday afternoon I didn’t have a swim scheduled, but myself and Andy decided to go do a few laps in any case. Big was my surprise then, when I got to the leisure centre and had to hear that lane swimming was now subject to the lifeguards’ discretion. Immediately my blood boiled, which means it was probably a good thing that a few minutes later we were in the pool and cooling down.

I watched as one of the guys that always comes in during weekdays and does lane swimming, arrived and was told that there was no lane swimming yesterday. He was told to go swim in the inside pool if he wanted to do lane swimming, and considering that the water in there feels like bath water, I doubt he enjoyed his swim if he indeed even started it.

We didn’t stay long, just long enough to cool down and then we did a bit of grocery shopping.

As with the rest of the northern hemisphere, it was a blistering hot day. I didn’t dare go for my run before it cooled down and this only happened at around 9pm, but as another blogger so rightfully said, sleep when you’re dead. I went for my 60 minute run – after 20 minutes Andy stepped to the side and stretched while I carried on running in order to turn back after 30 minutes.

My heart rate was doing well, I was so proud. I kept it between 155 and 166 bpm and after 50 minutes I really thought I was going to make it through the whole run without my Forerunner going insane and beeping to get me to go slower and get that heart rate down, but then I managed to scare myself witless with my imagination. I thought I saw my friend Mr Snake and my heart rate spiked to a level I haven’t seen before. I should’ve worn my HRM the day that I saw that snake, then I’d probably have a better idea of my maximum HR.

After a minute or two of walking, my heart rate went down, but still not to a desirable level, so I finished the 60 minutes with a combination of walking and running and hoping.

I got home and slept like the dead until this morning when Andy’s alarm woke us. I phoned the leisure centre this morning to raise my complaint and had to hear (surprise surprise) that that was not what the manager had decided and that yesterday was a one-off.

We’ll see about that. Alternatively I’ll just go swim in the bathtub they have indoors :)

I only have 3 days at my current job. Yes, I'm changing companies next week :) The new offices are about 4 miles closer to home, but still close enough to the other office so that I won't miss the Friday lunches we do. Every Friday at lunch we go down to the local pub, have a snack basket between the five of us and have a drink each to celebrate the past week. The past few weeks have been stressful and I had a lot to get done, but it does seem like it will be finished by Friday.

With that said, the swimming the past few weeks have really helped keep the stress under control. Yesterday afternoon I didn't particularly feel like going for a swim, but Andy got me through the gates and into the pool and in the end I was really glad that I had done it.

Then I woke up this morning and did a bit of cycling. Not much, just a little bit, but every little helps on the road back to fitness. This evening I'm supposed to go meet Andy for another swim at the leisure centre, and afterwards meet a friend from the running club to go for a 3 or 4 mile run.

I feel a little more inspired every day!

Trying to swim in a pool where there are other people splashing around is amusing. More so because some people expect other to give way to their kids (who will, without a second thought, swim right over/ into you) all the time. This was the case last night. One child went as far as to watch me approach, stepping in front of me and walking towards me. It must've have frustrated him slightly when I changed my course and swam around him. He then turned around and as if intentional, made sure that this time he stayed in my path, so that I would have to stop. I stopped. I gave him an earful. His mom gave me an earful. I couldn't help myself and informed her that he obviously takes after her. If she approves of his disregard and disrespect for other peoplek I wonder why she took such an offense to my statement.

By all means, I don't expect anyone to keep out of my way when I swim at a pool during non-lane swimming times, but don't go out of your way to make someone else's swimming experience an unpleasant one. The last few lengths of the swim was fun, I swam around the poeple playing in the pool and some kids dove under me while I swam and waved at me. From tomorrow though, I think I'll be doing my swimming during lane swimming times only until I join some club sessions.

Then this morning I woke up and my legs made it clear that they were in no mood to run. A slight stiffness in them made me feel sluggish. A decision of will was made and with a promise to myself to take it easy, I went out.

The first 5 minutes went by without me noticing. The second 5 minutes I felt a little heavy, but the run still felt easy. The third 5 minutes I ran across wet clay; my legs didn't want to do that. Then I got off the clay and the next 9 minutes went okay, although I could feel that I was still tired from the weekend and yesterday.

Tonight I have a bike ride scheduled and tomorrow morning a short run. I think I'll see how I feel before I tackle those and if I do it, rather take it a little easier than I intended in the first place. No use in over-doing it :)