Booked on a development course on personal finance at work today!
13 April!
Last class of this course tonight. I can tell I am improving, but it’s still a struggle. Im doing much better on the drills and exercises with the kickboard, but still find the actual swimming without the board a huge effort.
We finished with 4×25 metres of backstroke a daunting task but I relaxed into it, slowed down and managed it in two goes with a bit of a pause between the two.
Booked for 13 more weeks of classes tonight. I have to crack it by the end of that!!
When I got in, had to sit on the sofa for ages, totally worn out and still sweating. Feeling pretty good now though.
Time for another update…
Missed last week’s lesson as I was unwell, but I’ve had a few practice sessions because I’ve joined a gym with a pool!! The little and often practice sessions seem to be helping a lot. It is also helping that the pool is shorter – only 17 metres and has no deep end. I find it much less scary so I can relax and concentrate on the swimming.
Lesson again tomorrow so I’ll see how I get on…
Much better tonight! I feel very happy with my progress, actually had moments when I felt I was ‘getting’ it and could feel I was moving through the water with a bit of power.
I had a practice session on Sunday, went to the pool at opening time when it was pretty quiet. Didn’t do much and did not feel good at all, still panic-y but was good I got back in. I also did not cycle to work today, so less tired, too.
Have been doing some visualising of gliding through the water, feeling relaxed and moving my arms more slowly. Maybe that has helped too. Tonight I managed to take it more slowly and not thrash around so much. Hope it continues.
Two more sessions on this course. I can sign up for a new course on Monday and am going to do it. Am not stopping until I can swim :-)
and I really struggled :-( Felt exhausted the whole time also had a minor panic attack/freak out kind of thing. It all seems very difficult at the moment but I am sure things will pick up I just need to keep at it.
I think I will not cycle to work on lesson days so I am better rested for the lesson. My swimming fitness seems to be at a stnadstill, it has not noticeably increased at all. It is strange because for cycling or running I have had noticeable improvements in a fairly short space of time. Possibly with the swimming it is using muscles that have had very little use before which might explain the slow (or non-existent) improvement.
More practice needed, too. I need to make an effort to get in the pool more often.
SO many people have this as a ‘thing’!
Have wanted to see them for a long time. Nearly made it this year but went on a Christmas hol with my mum instead. Next year in Norway maybe.
Thanks to Westminster council who are offering cheap cycle maintenance courses!
Booked for 10 April. Only £15
Looking forward to this now :-)
The instructor says I am making progress! I also (at times) feel I am making progress, it is feeling slightly more ‘natural’ and the elements come together better, more often. I have a loooooong way to go though.
It is very hard work, I am exhausted by the end of the class. We must have covered about 12 lengths of the big pool which obviously is not a lot to a proper swimmer but is massive for me!
Four more weekly lessons to go. I am already thinking about signing up for more if they continue.
Browned the beef with onions, then put it in slow cooker with quartered onions, mushrooms, thickly sliced carrots, beef stock cube.
Deglazed pan with red wine, added that, salt and pepper a bit of sage, topped up with very little water, cooked for 7 hours on high.
Turned out beautifully.
:-)
Actually this represents a GAIN! Haven’t weighed or logged it here for two weeks so I have been lighter!
Had a bit of a blow out – meals out, lots of wine, puddings, chocolate….kept up the exrecise pretty well though with lots of swimming which must have counterbalanced it a bit.
Back at at now!
After some messing around because the pool had grouped really advanced people with the more feeble like me they corralled the weak ones into a group and we got started.
It was both easier and harder being in a group. Easier because less constant swimming and more breaks while the others worked so less exhausting. Harder because of waiting for others and less individual attention.
I got used to it pretty quickly and it was a nice group of people, but the intructor is much more of a ‘just get on with it’ type. That is OK for me now but I would not have coped with him when I was really new to swimming and more scared.
Concentrated mostly on front crawl without breathing, I am doing OK, need to work on getting my elbows higher out of the water. Also worked on backstroke, which I find so much easier and I seem to be making good progress there.
Have a three day trial at a new gym from Friday so hope to get some more swimming in over those days.
Feeling pretty happy about swimming at the moment, it was nice getting in the pool again.
One of my friends made a connection last night to how it felt learning to drive with so much to remember and coordinate. That thought helped a lot, I learned to drive a long time ago (25 years!) but still remember so clearly how much I struggled with it. That thought gave me some confidence that I can get over this and put it all together.
Today’s lesson I did much better – got into the Big Pool which was really scary, it is two metres deep at the deep end and 25 metres long. Managed to swim ‘properly’ almost a whole length, my lack of fitness brought me to a stop at about 20 metres. I am very ungainly thrashing around but am trying to remember the right way to do everything and sometimes I manage to do it.
After the trauma of the big pool we went back in the baby pool and I managed to swim a whole length of that – about 18 metres. Really need to work on my swimming fitness but I know that will improve in time.
Anyway, I’ve signed up for an ‘intermediate’ class that starts next week – one lesson a week for six weeks. The entry requirement was being able to swim 10 metres on your front and on your back which I know I can do now!
I’m also interested to see how much the swimming has begun to change my shape, even after a relatively short time. My back feels much stronger, I am standing up straighter and my waist, legs and arms all seem more defined. (Still fat though ha ha!)
Onwards!!
Second lesson today and I am really struggling. Seems to be so much to remember – legs, arms, breathing all at the same time. Need to keep at it but it seems very tough right now.
I am keeping on until I get it!!
and I have discovered the difference between pottering from one end of the pool to the other with lots of rest at each end to a full on lesson!
By the end of the half hour I was exhausted and sweating but I feel I am making good progress. Thanks to my practice sessions with friends and on my own I felt pretty confident in the pool already and had no trouble with the starting out things – floating, gliding, blowing bubbles into the water so the intructor got stuck into the actual swimming pretty quickly.
Learning to coordinate everything is still a struggle – getting the arms right and not just flailing them into the water any old way, breathing out, remembering to breathe, getting my head out of the water, keeping on kicking…I am sure it will come together but this stage of practising and struggling feels really tough.
It is a real challenge to my fitness, too. I am pretty fit from cycling a lot but not fit at ALL for swimming! Am really grateful for the practice sessions I’ve had already even though they were very relaxed because I’ve built up a bit of swimming fitness from them and without that I’m not sure how I would have managed this session. I am hoping my fitness will build up pretty quickly now though.
Am having a half hour individual lesson every morning this week, then am trying to book onto an improvers course which will be a group course starting the following week.
OK, I am doing this five pounds at a time so this month I checked off my ‘lose 10 pounds’ goal (go me!!) and now starting on the ‘lose 15’.
Following the weightwatchers plan which seems to work for me pretty well and I’m exercising pretty regularly despite axing my gym membership. I try to cycle to work three times a week (according to my heart rate monitor I burn around 700 calories in a day’s commuting) and I’m learning to swim.
The ten pound loss so far has made a big difference in how well my clothes fit, which is great. I also feel a lot healthier from eating better – more fruit and vegetables and far less cake, biscuits, chocolates and toast and butter.
My overall target to get to a healthy weight is to lose 18 more pounds (at the start it was 28 pounds eeek!) but I am breaking it down to be less scary!
On to the 15!
:-)
Nice result on today’s weigh in – I am 2.5 pounds down, so last week’s gain has gone and taken some extra with it.
I didn’t cycle as much this week, but did add in some swimming as I go on with meeting my learn to swim goal. Foodwise I am doing well, have had dinners out, some wine but keeping everything in balance quite well at the moment.
My office is full of biscuits AGAIN!!! My colleagues persist in buying them. I have for the moment cracked the habit of eating them, but it is a bit ‘all or nothing’ – I reckon if I had one it might break my healthy eating vibe. I have a little treat almost every night though, I keep some points for it but I’m not going hungry and am having good food too. Feeling quite well at the moment and the feeling of clothes fitting better – or even feeling loose – is great.
Oh the annoyance! I am a pound heavier at this week’s weigh in.
On the positive side I am actually thinner and my clothes fit better, I am just weighing heavier :-( Did a lot of cycle commuting the last week, maybe that has made me retain water or something.
Hmmmph. Anyway, 2.5 pounds more to lose to hit my 10 pound target. Onwards!!!
