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.

I swam today!

Great excitement today!

I went to the gym to do a little bit of training followed by a swim. Swimming has become an important part of my exercise routine, but I'm still struggling to swim properly (by that I mean fitting in breathing). Ally tells me I'm doing really well given that it's only been two years, but it's still frustrating.

I've been working on breaststroke since the summer when it sort of clicked while we were on holiday. As usual it's the breathing that's the problem. I think that subconsciously my mind is saying to my body, "You're in water, don't breathe", so even when I get my face clear of the water and open my mouth, very little air appears to go in.

But I keep trying and today it seemed to click and I found myself breathing fairly uniformly as I swam the 13m length of the pool. I turned, and swam back again. Now I've done that before but not with the smoothness that seemed to be a feature of today's effort. 

After that I went on to swim one length on my back and one breaststroke for another 20 lengths or so.

Given that Ally wasn't there to witness this amazing triumph I'd just like to take this opportunity to tell myself, "Well done." 

This may of course not be a big thing for you, but for me, after so many years not in the water, I'm really excited about every little breakthrough I experience. And if you think you too old to learn or too old to change the way you swim, then I float here as a reminder that if you're less than 51, there's still time! I can't speak for anyone older!

Which then makes me think: When do we stop setting goals for ourselves? Perhaps when we forget that life is a gift that's worth exploring. Perhaps when we lose the sense of joy that comes from doing something for the first time. For me, I can't wait to go swimming with Anne and/or Ally to show them what I've learnt. I just hope it wasn't a fluke today.

I guess I'll find out on Monday, if that's the next time I go swimming.

Improving my swimming

As some regular readers may know I learnt to swim a couple of years ago. In the two years that have passed two things have continued to evade my grasp. Firstly getting to grips with figuring out how to breath as I swim. Only being able to go as far as I can on a single breath has been a source of great frustration.

Secondly, I've never been able to swim with my head out of the water, which I know is not the best way to swim, but it's just something I haven't been able to do. 

The inability to swim in this inefficient way is one of the reasons I never learnt to swim in the first place. I just sank.

Anyway, while we were on holiday I managed to swim a little bit of breast-stoke both with and without my head in the water. I thought this was because of the salt water pool aiding buoyancy. But here's the exciting thing (exciting for me anyway), Ally and I went swimming today and I managed to do several lengths of the 13m pool breast-stroke! Quite an achievement for me, and one which gives me great pleasure. I can't wait to go again and do some more practising.