Rather than clog up my other blog with swim updates here is a brand new Oggy Blog, just about the swimming... Swimming updates probably won't be funny, although I'm sure in the course of swimming 120 lengths per week for the next twelve weeks, there will be some hilarious poolside anecdotes (or not...) Sod it, I've never let a lack of amusing tit bits prevent my other blog from struggling along, so here goes...
Anyway, this is all very specific: I'm doing this you see and fundraising here. Sponsor me if you are so inclined, but the main aim of taking part is to improve my fitness.
The challenge of swimming 22 miles (35.4 km) over 12 weeks equates to a grand total of 1416 lengths of a 25 metre pool. It started today and as above I need to swim roughly 120 lengths every week to complete the challenge. . Except, oh yeah, hmmm... all next week, I'm on holiday on a narrowboat and I don't fancy swimming in the canal any more than I fancy getting in the actual channel, so I either need to catch up with those 120 over the first few weeks or do more each week as the challenge progresses. I'm going to try and swim an extra 60 this week and an extra 60 the week after I get back, because I don't want to get behind with this early on. It is a pretty big commitment each week as it is.
My masterplan is to swim 40 lengths, 3 times a week, but I did this same challenge a few years back and that will probably change over the weeks depending on time commitments and how often I can get to the pool etc. I'm already realising I need to be a lot more organised in day to day life and probably drink less midweek to facilitate my ability to swim as regularly as I need to without drowning.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a walk in the park for me. I'm not the strongest swimmer you've ever met. I almost entirely swim breaststroke, because crawl gives me cramp and the breathing confuses me, but I'm hoping I'll try out crawl and backstroke too over the course of the challenge, for a bit of variety and to try and improve all three of the strokes a little bit, as I go along....
So Today - Swim One.
I swam 40 lengths (1 km) today and it was a bit of a struggle (all breaststroke, head above water and no goggles...) and it took almost 40 minutes. I am fairly certain that had I attempted even that 1km in the waters of the channel, I'd probably have drowned. Thankfully, I was at the Virgin Active pool and there were no tidal issues to contend with, so I plodded through it and am glad that things are underway. 1376 lengths left to go...I was quite conscious of feeling like a bit of a tubster in my cozzie and am hoping that will improve too over the weeks to come.
That is all for now. I need to swim tomorrow, Wednessday and Thursday too, if I'm going to make a bit of headway before the boat trip begins on Friday... So watch this space...
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