This should have been written yesterday, when technically that was true. I had a great start to the week, getting up both Monday and Tuesday to go swimming before work. I got up this morning too, but ended up fannying around too much that it was quite late when I was due to leave the house and I would have ended up making myself late for work. I got as far as the front door onto the street intending to go to the pool, but so harassed and reluctant was I to go that I turned back round, went back upstairs, showered and went to work instead. Not so good, but at least I have managed two great swims this week despite this morning’s hiccup.
The pool has been pretty busy this week, which is annoying, and on both days I found I had to switch lanes during my swim. Perhaps I am getting faster after all… I have been trying my new approach of swimming a bit harder every 5 lengths, and with two great times this week, I think it might actually have worked. It’s pretty difficult to do, particularly on length 5 as I’m always sluggish in the first 10, and I’m not sure I was swimming that much faster… But I did break a few personal records over the two days… On Monday I managed my Fastest Average Time per length (47.22) and my Fastest Overall Time (31.28.67) and then on Tuesday I managed my Fastest Fast length (38.30). Not bad at all. And sooo sooo chuffed with the 31.28 overall time on Monday! Sometimes I think it’s just swimming in the other slow lane – it motivates me to swim faster and harder because psychologically I think it’s a faster lane… I didn’t expect to do so well on Tuesday because I was feeling it from Monday, but again managed a pretty fast overall time: 31.42.06. Hurrah! My second fastest time…
I did get stuck behind some pretty annoying people on both days and wonder if I would have been faster if I hadn’t been. The one who annoyed me most was a man I refer to as ‘Saggy Pants Man’. He wears a pair of black trunks, which I can only describe as looking like big pants (any girls out there should know what I mean by big pants, we all own a pair somewhere). They’re (thankfully!) snug around his waist and at the tops of the legs, but sag around his arse – too much fabric in them I think… Anyway, we swim at a very similar pace, although I would say that generally I swim a little faster at times than him. Mostly he swims in ‘the other lane’ so I don’t encounter him much but on both Monday and Tuesday when I had to switch lanes, I got stuck behind him and his saggy pants. And I mean right behind him. I kept creeping closer and he could see I was getting closer, but still every time he came to the end of the length he turned without letting me pass. Miserable sod. Grr… He’s a very inefficient turner (which is saying something coming from me), so I just kept getting closer. Eventually I was practically on top of him and just had to overtake – for my own sanity if nothing else! I always hate doing that, especially when it’s busy, and I had to swim for my life as there was someone coming towards me. Thankfully for all his other faults, he did slow down a bit to let me pass, but I don’t think he was very happy that I passed him. I suspect it helped with my overall time because I pushed off very fast after that to make sure there was plenty of water between the two of us for the rest of the time, so I felt justified in overtaking! He didn’t look very happy when I switched lanes and fell in behind him again yesterday… And I wasn’t very excited at the prospect of staring at his saggy pants while I swam either.
I am very tired now today – all this vigorous exercise is just knackering me!! But it’s probably good to have the odd day off. I’ll be back there tomorrow, fingers crossed!
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