Tag: swimming

Passed More

My swim last night was pretty good. After the kids were in bed I walked down and quickly headed for the pool deck. Of course the slow lane was packed with really slow swimmers and the fast lane had two people in it that were pretty fast. What to do?

I started off in the fast lane and got passed pretty quickly. I then tried the slow lane, but caught up to the woman doing the backstroke very quickly. I settled on the fast lane and did my best to stay out of the way of the others. It meant I took a few more breathers than I would have liked, but it also meant I wasn’t trying to dodge people.

In total I swam 650 – 700m. I’m pretty happy with that. I just need to work on my speed and endurance a little more. For now I don’t think I will increase the total distance until I can easily do 350m or more without stopping. Right now I pretty much have to take a break every 200m.

Groove Swim

Great swim tonight. I ate a good dinner, then helped get the kids ready for bed. As I walked down to the pool I was hoping the swim would feel good.

In the water, right from the first stroke I felt strong. I swam my first 200m without stopping. The only issue here was that I had to change lanes a couple times. The lady in the slower lane was really, really slow, and the guys in the fast lane were really, really fast. Once the lady left I stayed in the slower lane and got in the groove.

I then did another 200m sprint followed by a quick break. I ended with a 200m sprint, a very short break, then another 100m swim. I know I could have kept going, but I had a few things to do this evening, and I was still pretty proud of how I felt throughout the swim.

I really do need some new swim trunks though. The ones I have waistband elastic is shot, and the shorts are too big. I have to be careful how hard I push off the wall since I have felt them slip a little.

I skipped the hot tub tonight and had a nice shower instead.

Explosion Composure

Walking down to the pool tonight I was tired, not feeling like swimming, and still tasting french fry and Bacon Explosion burps (reminder, don’t go to Pig BBQ the day I go swimming).

Still I perservered. I got in the water and swam. The first 100m felt horrible, and I was on the verge of cramping. I took a quick breather, regained my composure and steeled myself for doing 500m.

Strange thing was that the more I swam, the better I started to feel. I still didn’t do more than 100m without taking a break, but my breaks got shorter, I started feeling stronger, my cramp went away, my breathing evened out. I felt pretty good.

I stopped when I reached 750m. Pretty proud of that. As I finished I took a glance at the hot tub. Woohoo, it wasn’t jam packed. I soaked for a few minutes, showered up, then headed home.

Cardio Sloppy

Swimming. It’s been a while. I was going once a week, but that stopped over the Christmas break. Now that I am going to be part of the Tour de Victoria I am going to need to do lots of training. Swimming is going to be a part of my cardio training.

Tonight I made my return to the pool. I wasn’t sure what it was going to feel like, but I started off slow and picked up my pace throughout the swim. I would swim 100m then take a breather and a water break. Nearing the end of my swim I could feel tired, but I also noticed my swimming stroke got more and more sloppy, and I kept gulping in water. Yeuck. In total I swam 600m.

While I was swimming there was some water exercise class going on in the pool beside me. They finished up just before I did, which was a bummer. The class basically emptied into the hot tub, and I really didn’t feel like hanging out in a crowded hot tub. Off to the showers for me.

Uber Lengths

Tonight was swim night again. At first the lane was pretty free since there was just me and one other gentleman. Gradually more people showed up until there was 5 of us trying to use the lane.

There was one guy doing a breaststroke, one woman going very slowly, one guy going uber fast, and one guy the same speed as me. The speedy guy started shortening his lengths so he could get around everyone else. I just did my best to stay out of everyone’s way and I think I did pretty well at that.

I swam a total of 700m tonight too. A 200m sprint, another 200m sprint, then a final 300 m sprint without stopping. Some day I might want to try and learn the kick flips. Besides looking cool they sure speed up the turn around process.

On one of my last lengths there was this woman who was treading water in the length lane. As I touched the wall and started back she asked me if I could see her key. Turned out she was trying to find her locker key that had come undone from her swim suit. I could see it, but there was no way I could swim down to get it. Someone else was able to help her retrieve it though.

After my swim I took a short dip in the hot tub, the on to the shower. Thankfully I avoided any chatty dudes this time.

Super Break

Tonight’s swim was a bit of a gong show. When I first got in the pool there was only one lane open. There was one other guy in the lane and he was fast. Super fast. I stayed out of his way as much as possible, but then a third person joined our lane. She was slower than I. Now this guy was weaving in between the both of us. Then a fourth person started doing lengths. I hit 600m and gave up at that point. Too much traffic. Too crazy.

The swimming I did do was good though. I swam 200m without stopping, a short break, and then another 200m without stopping. The rest there were a few breaks as I waited for people to be the right distance away.

The hot tub was even a gong show. Some super talkative guy started talking at me after the woman he was talking with left. I immediately saw why she left. He talked and talked and talked about all sorts of random topics without letting me get a word in edge wise. I eventually cut him off saying I had to go then walked away quickly. I just wanted to relax a bit in the warm water. Sheesh.

Swimmers Recover

Last week I swam 650 m. I was pretty happy with that. Throw in that I did the last 150m continuous, and maybe I am seeing some improvements. Weird thing was that as I soaked in the hot tub I bumped into a former co-worker and we chatted for a bit. Then as I left the building I bumped into someone else I know.

This week was similar to last week. I did 650m again, but this time my longest stretch of continuous swimming was 200m or 250m. The lane was pretty busy and I tried to stay out of everyone’s way as much as possible. It was odd that the slow lane I was in had two other pretty fast swimmers in it and the fast lane had a very slow swimmer in it.

The hot tub was nice and relaxing too.

The one thing that I have figured out about swimming is to relax. When breathing I often end up with water in my mouth. During my first few swims when this happened I would panic and inevitably stop swimming to recover. Now I can keep going and recover on my next breath. Sometimes I bump the wall, or the lane markers. This also used to throw me off, but now I can recover mid stroke and keep going. I must be getting better.

Swim Tub

I swam and played a bit in the water last week while at Sproat Lake, but I didn’t actually swim. My last swim wasn’t so good either.

I decided to head to the pool last night, but as I arrived I saw that the two length swimming lanes were pretty packed (around 7 or 8 people). One guy was even swimming lengths with his son on his back!

I almost bailed on the swim, but went anyway. By the time I got to the pool deck most people had moved on and I was able to share one lane with someone else.

I did a 100m warmup then concentrated on not stopping too much between lengths. The last 100m I did without stopping at all. In total I swam 600m.

I would have liked to retire to the hot tub, but it was closed 🙁 Next week.

The one thing that made the night less enjoyable was the super chatty naked guy soaking in the shower.

Pool Track

Since Ulti is over for another year I decided that for tonight I should revert to swimming on Wednesday nights.

Tonight was my first time in the length pool in a very long time. I was slow, it felt a little awkward at first, but eventually I got into a rythm.

There was one other person in my lane, and she was even slower than I. I had to weave around her several times, but that was ok, it gave me a chance to take a breather every now and then.

The one thing about swimming is that I have a hard time keeping track of how far I swim. I keep losing track of how many lengths I have done. In then end I know I did at least 30 lengths and as many as 34. This means I swam between 750 metres and 850 metres. Not bad. Next time I will work on swimming more than 25 metres at a time without stopping 🙂

Off for a quick sit in the hot tub, then a short walk home. Nice.