Failure!

Well, that’s probably a bit harsh, but I have managed to entirely fail to lose 6 pounds in three weeks. In fact, I pretty much failed to lose 1! Which is pretty shocking… After a good start, it all slipped away after the (much enjoyed) excesses of last weekend. I am, however, pretty pleased that I did not go completely backwards and only put on one pound from last week, weighing, as I did this morning, X-2 stones 13lb 1/8. It could have been soooo much worse!

On a more positive note I found my old notebook in which I noted my measurements (another scary thing!) back in March last year when I started this weight loss drive. I am so pleased to report that I have managed to shift a grand total of:

4 inches off my waist
3 1/2 inches off my hips
2 inches off my boobs
2 inches off my back measurement

Let’s face it, it’s not all about the weight, but also about healthiness and clothes fitting not only better but getting too big as I drop sizes… So I finally had to ditch some jeans that were too big for me and have found that some of my skirts, that hadn’t been fitting properly for about 2 years, I am now able to wear properly (not fooling myself that they fit and thus creating a hideous muffin top…) I think this technically means I have dropped a dress size or so, but seeing as I had become one of these deluded women who think they still fit into things that they clearly don’t, it’s difficult to tell… ;o)

I also went swimming three times this week. Yes three! And all in a row… Tuesday and Wednesday I have already covered, but I also went out on Thursday morning too (and considered it this morning, before going back to sleep…). It was sooo lovely and quiet with only 7 other people in the pool. Bliss. I got my lane to myself the whole time and I really really enjoyed my swim. I think I may have enjoyed it a bit too much, however, as my time was really shocking when I got out! I thought I had been going really well and fairly fast and was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I had tried to work on my technique a bit (cue the excuses), but I think this just served to slow me down… Coming down the home straight on length 40 I thought, yup, this has been good, should be a good time, I wont be happy if it’s over 33 mins as it should be pretty fast. I then touched the wall, stopped the SportsCount and looked at the total. 34.18.86!! Ok, so only 30 seconds slower than on Wednesday, but I haven’t clocked over 34 mins since the beginning of April!! I was so shocked at it that I kept looking to check. When checking the other stats (fastest lap was about average) I saw what I think was the reason – a length of unutterable laziness that is unmatched in all my adventures in the Uni Pool. Yes, length number 28 clocked up a whopping 57.01 seconds!! My slowest lengths weren’t even that bad when I first started at this pool. Clearly I was entirely unarsed in that length. I was very disappointed. But, hey, I went, that’s what’s important, and I managed a whole 100 metres of backstroke after my breaststroke too (4 lengths). I did consider doing more but time was ticking away and I still had to get myself to work…

But all these adventures in swimming mean that I have also managed to walk over 7 miles this week (it’s a round trip of about 2.4 miles to and from work via the pool), not including the walk at Little Glen Garr on Monday. So all in all a good exercise week. Let’s just hope I keep it up next week and manage to get the old weight loss back on track too.

New swimming regime

After my run on Saturday I was pretty sore on Sunday/Monday – my thigh muscles ached like there was no tomorrow. I’m still glad I went and I’ll still try to go again this weekend, but boy it hurt!

Still, no pain, no gain…

Was at the pool again on Monday for my usual Monday night swim. Decided on a new tactic for this year. Rather than swimming for a set amount of time I am going to swim a set number of lengths, regardless of how long it takes me. Then I can work on trying to get a bit quicker, trying to beat my time for that number of lengths and then up the number of lengths as the weeks go on, thus helping me get fitter!

As I normally swim about 34 lengths or so in half an hour I decided to start off at a relatively gentle 40 lengths target. The pool is the average 25 yards that local pools seem to be (around 23 metres) so that would be a nice half a mile (or around 914 metres according to an online calculator I've just found...)

I had bought myself a new gizmo last week to help me count lengths and time myself and I must say it worked a treat (as did my new approach). Gone was the constant craning up at the clock as I watched the minutes tick past. Instead I could concentrate on counting my lengths and let the gizmo time me (and keep a track on my counting!).


It's called a Sportcount and it's pretty good as it just sits on your index finger and you can press the button with your thumb when you turn and it provides lap count and split times during your workout, and reports summary statistics at the end of the session.

I like to count the lengths in my head as well as it’s a way of using the swimming as mental relaxation as well as physical exercise. It clears my brain of whatever else might be clogging it up. As I was going for a nice round set number of lengths I could neatly count them in sets of 10, which I found to be a great psychological boost – it meant I didn’t have to concentrate on the large number left til the end, but on how many I had to do in this set – 10 is a much better number to aim at than 40!

By the end of my 40 lengths I could happily have done another 10 at least, which was both surprising and made me feel good. I might even have done so if I hadn’t been wanting to start off modestly (just because I had the energy for it this week, doesn’t mean I will next!), and if I hadn’t arranged for the Fiancé to meet me at a specific time.

The gizmo gives me some lovely stats, so here are last nights:

40 lengths
33.07.75 minutes
Average time for a length: 49.69 seconds (pretty slow, I know)
Fastest length: 1 at 40.25 seconds
Slowest length: 16 at 53.43 seconds

Not quite sure why 16 was my slowest, but interesting that it was one in the middle, not one at the end. It might have been one where I got stuck behind a slow person – the real bane of public swimming (particularly in January when every one has resolutions to break).

Pretty pleased with all that, particularly the overall time, which I thought was going to be slower for the 40 lengths. So next time my challenge is to try and make them a bit faster. Let’s see how I do…