At last he swims!

Okay, so I've been swimming for two years now, but until recently I didn't think I was doing particularly well. Last week however I seemed to turn a corner. As with many things it was down to practice, and after a lot of practice I seemed finally to get it right when it came to getting air and not water into my lungs. 

It's odd, but the harder I tried the more difficult it was. My brain was trying to control too many things and I was inevitably over-thinking the whole process. I decided to slow down and focus on one thing, a steady rhythmic breathing pattern. Now I know that you are supposed to take a breath on every stroke in breaststroke, but I find that leaves me breathless, so every other stroke works for me at the moment. Nice steady stretch, pull, kick, glide and breath giving my head the single job of monitoring my inhale as my face clears the water. And I'm away, up and down the pool.

I wondered if this was a one-off last week. A bit like having your best ever round of golf, but this week I feel as if I've improved. I've been swimming every day so far and covered almost 3Km in four days. And, although I'm tired from doing it, I must admit that in the water I feel as though I could keep going for longer than I do. Today, for example, I swam alternate lengths of backstroke and breaststroke, my current pattern, and did 50 lengths of the 13m pool I use. 

Okay so it would be very different I guess in a 25m pool, but the confidence is building and maybe one day I'll go to a bigger pool and put it to test. Until then, I'm still pretty impressed that after two years of effort it looks like it's paying off. I never thought I'd say this, but I truly love being in the water.