Swimming – slight return


After work today I went back to my friends’ condo, and with the pass card they’d lent me, went to the pool. The sun was setting and the sky turning pink, and the water felt cold as I eased myself in. I began my planned six laps.
I’m consistent at the moment, doing 25 metres in around 45 seconds each time, needing to pause and gather myself for between 75 and 90 seconds between each length. This is better than I did yesterday; then, it took me around 20 minutes to do 6 lengths, which shows how much I lollygag.

I mistimed things on my second lap and came up short, standing and coughing and spitting 5 metres too early. I think I did that several times yesterday, but only once tonight, so that’s an improvement.

It goti darker and darker, but I didn’t notice the cold. I swam back and forth, inconsistent in form yet strangely consistent in timing. Sometimes I can manage 4 strokes without breathing, sometimes only 2. Sometimes I remember to not kick and tire myself out, and to turn my body more in the water, and other times I don’t. I’ve no idea now if I’m moving my head correctly to breathe or pulling it up too high, but at least even when I made a mistake and tried inhaling underwater on my sixth lap, I didn’t panic and managed to keep going and correct.

After six lengths, I promised myself I’d try to swim just a bit more. Not a full 25 metres, but just enough to do better than yesterday.

About half way through, the lights for the pool suddenly came on, and instead of swimming in the dark there were bright lights. That was a little off putting but somehow I made it all the way to the end of my seventh lap without having to stop. After achieving that milestone in just 14 minutes, I floated on my back for a while and then washed the chlorine from my hair, and went home.

Job well done, I do declare.


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