Today we had half an hour, and the first five laps were just working on legs, which was brutal as ever. However, I think the intervening days in the pool have paid off, as I can now kick fast and powerfully, and if I remember to arch my back slightly and point my head down, I can actually go quite quickly now.
At the end of the lesson I verified this: tired, I can do 20 metres of freestyle in under 26 seconds (my best time when not totally knackered is 25,so I’m progressing in leaps and bounds now).
We did a couple of laps of arms only, which was also tough, and then some butterfly, which is almost comically difficult. I had the arms all wrong: I was doing some bastardised edition of breaststroke, arms going out wide, when they should have gone straight back and then flared out to return to the front. And apart from the fact that I have to stop every 5 metres to get my breath back, it went better than expected.
Finally, after all that, and after my attempt to sprint for a lap, I tried breaststroke underwater, and I still manage about 10 metres and then have to stop and come up for air. But this feels like a great improvement.
Home now, to read the girls their story and then let my wife put them to bed while I eat jujubes. It’s a good life.