Another long swim

La Serpiente told me to do twenty lengths of the pool again tonight, so I drove down to the gym after eating some cheese, and got to work. Last week I’d brought a bottle of water and I’d omitted to do so today, and my body was still a little sore from last night’s climb. (As in, I could hardly get out of bed this morning, so sore was I.)
I figured twenty lengths was unlikely and I’d be happy with ten or twelve. But oddly, I managed two lengths without stopping. I paused for 45 seconds, did two more. And then again, and again, until I’d done eight lengths in ten minutes and was clearly on track to do more if I didn’t stop.

Swiftly I got up to 16, still managing 50 yards between each rest. Each length was getting slower now, but I kept on. Twenty was in sight.

When I’d done 18, I knew I could keep going. Another old friend of mine from London had told me to do 22, so after a long rest, I cruised to the end and then clambered out of the pool for the hot tub. Mission more than accomplished.

Part of this rests on watching YouTube videos about swimming this week (main findings: go a bit slower, concentrate on hand form, think about breathing) but I think if I’m going to go very much further, I’ll need to enlist a coach. Let’s see how much further we can progress – thirty lengths in thirty minutes?